ON 



THE 



RELATION 



BETWEEN 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 




to loy^x to rtZQi SousctTOV, szsho to lisivov hariv. — Epictetus, Enchir. 10. 



" Men are harassed not by things but by the notions they form of things; death, for example, is no- 
thing terrible, for if it were, it -would have appeared so to Socrates; but the notion that death is some- 
thing terrible, is the really terrible thing." 



" Impiety clears the soul of its consecrated errors, but it does not fill the heart of man. Impiety alone 
will never ruin a human worship. A faith destroyed must be replaced by a faith. It is not given to ir- 
religion to destroy a religion on earth. It is but a religion more enlightened which can really triumph 
over a religion fallen into contempt, by replacing it. The earth cannot remain without an altar, and God 
only is 6trongenough against God!" — La.martixe's History of the Girondists (vol. i. p. 156; Bohn, 1848). 




BY 



G-EORGE 'COMBE. 



M 




TRANSLATION. 



FOURTH AND PEOPLE^ EDITION, 

Price Two Shillings. 



EDINBUKGrH : 
MACLACHLAN AND STEWART. 
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 

1857. 



The Pdght of Translation is Reserved by the Author, 



\ 



To CHARLES MACKAY, Esq., LL.D. 
My Dear Sib, 

A friendship of long duration, admiration of 
your genius, and cordial sympathy with the purposes to which you 
have devoted it, induce me to dedicate this volume to you as a mark of 
affection and esteem. 

I am, 

My Dear Sir, 

Yours very sincerely, 

GEO. COMBE. 

Edinburgh, 3L?e March 1857. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 

Introduction. 

Chap. I. On the present state of the relation between Science and 

Religion, . . , . .1 

II. Definition of the words Science and Religion, and Elucida- 
tion of the complex character of Religion, . . 15 

III. Sect. I. Of the Physical Elements of Man, . . 23 

II. Of the Mental Organs and Faculties of Man, . 29 

III. Of the Particular Faculties of the Mind, their 

cerebral organs, modes of activity, and uses 

and abuses, ..... 33 

IV. Is Man naturally a Religious Being ? .34 
V. Is Man naturally a Moral Being ? . .45 

VI. Is there any Natural Standard of Moral and Re- 
ligious Truth ? .... 47 

IV. Of the extent to which Man is able to discover the Ultimate 

Elements or Essence of the External World, . . 51 

V. Of God, ....... 66 

VI. Can we trace Divine Government in the Phenomena of the 
Physical and Moral Worlds ? And if so, by what means 
is it maintained and rendered efficient ? . .82 

Sect. I. Of the Government of the Physical World, . 82 

II. Can we discover the Means by which the Moral 

World is Governed ? . . . .84 

III. Of Life— Health— Disease— and Death, . 89 

IV. Of the Divine Government of Human Actions, 109 
V. Means by which the Individual Human Faculties, 

as Moral Forces, are regulated in their Action, 118 
VI. Effects of the Predominance of particular Groups 
of Organs in Individuals in determining their 
qualities as Moral Agents, . . . 130 

The effects of Predominance of Size in the Animal 

Region of the Brain, . . . .132 

Effects when both the Animal and Intellectual 
Organs are large, and the Moral Organs are 
small, . . . . .136 

Effects when the Animal, Moral, and Intellectual 
Regions of the Brain, are all large and nearly 
equally balanced, . . . .139 



ii 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Chap. VI. Sect. VI. Effects when the Moral and Intellectual Organs 
are large in proportion to those of the Pro- 
pensities, ..... 144 
Rammohun Roy, .... 145 
Effects of Special Combinations of the Mental 

Forces as they occur in Individuals, . . 150 

Robert Burns, ..... 154 

Note on Mr Hugh Miller, . . . 157 

VII. Of Nations considered as Moral Forces, . 160 

VII. Historical Evidence that the Divine Government of Na- 

tions is Moral, ...... 171 

VIII. Is this World, such as it now exists, an Institution? — Or 

is it the Wreck of a better System ? . . .179 

Sect. I. Is this World an Institution ? . . . ib. 

II. Is this World the Wreck of a better System ? . 185 

IX. Practical Considerations, .... 191 
Sect. I. How should we act, if the World is an Institution ? ib. 

II. The consequences which have followed from the 

prevailing religious Dogmas, . . 218 

X. Conclusion, ...... 253 

APPENDIX. 

No. I. Names of the Phrenological Organs and their situations in the 

head, referred to in page 33, ..... 261 
II. Evidence of the Influence of the Brain on Feeling and Thought, 

referred to on page 28, ..... 262 

III. Descriptions of Heaven and Hell, &c, from Catechism by Joseph 

Hay, A.M., Minister, Arbroath, referred to on page 233, . 264 

IV. On Man-Concocted Articles of Faith, referred to on page 233, . 266 
V. Definition of the " Personality" of the Deity, . . .268 

VI. On the Worship of the Shakers, referred to on pages 204 and 213, 269 

VII. Letters from the late Dr Samuel Brown to George Combe, on the 

Natural Evidence for the Existence and Attributes of God, and 
other topics, ....... 270 

VIII. Note on Dr M'Cosh's " Method of the Divine Government," . 276 
IX. Note on ''Faith in God and Modern Atheism compared," by 
James Buchanan, D.D., referred to in the Introduction, page 
xxx., . . . . i. . . . 277 

X. Speech of Loi-d John Russell on Teaching Natural Theology in 

Common Schools, ...... 277 

X I . Recommendations to teach Physiology in Common Schools, re- 
ferred to on page 257, ..... 278 



ADVEBTISEMENT. 



The substance of this work appeared first in the Phrenological 
Journal, vol. xx., published in 1847. 

The present, ov fourth edition, which is greatly en- 
larged, consists of— 
Copies at 5s. each, . 500 

People's edition, copies at 2s. each, 1500 

Total, ■ 2000 copies. 

The working classes are indebted to the generosity of R. F. Breed, 
Esq., Ballaughton House, Douglas, Isle of Man, for the People's Edi- 
tion, he having desired its publication, and provided funds to cover 
the extra expense attending it. 

Edinburgh, 31s£ March 1857. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The present work first appeared in 1847 as a pamphlet, and 
attracted considerable attention. It has for some time been 
out of print, and as it continues in demand, I have been led 
by circumstances to enlarge it in the present edition. As the 
investigation^contained in it is of great extent, and embraces 
a consideration of the present religious creeds of Europe, I 
shall introduce it by a brief notice of the incidents which 
led me to take an interest in the subject. By pursuing this 
course, I shall be under the necessity of introducing a portion 
of my personal history — which may expose me to the charge 
of vanity and egotism ; but on the other hand, the narrative 
will shew that the questions here discussed have long formed 
topics of earnest and serious consideration in my mind, and 
that the views now advanced are brought forward in no light 
spirit, but are founded on deep and solemn convictions. 

An event so common and trivial as almost to appear ludi- 
crous when introduced into a grave discourse, but which is 
real, gave rise to the train of thought which is developed in 
this work. When a child of six or seven years of age, some be- 
nevolent friend bestowed on me a lump of sugar-candy. The 
nursery-maid desired me to give a share of it to my younger bro- 
thers and sisters, and I presented it to her to be disposed of as 
she recommended. She gave each of them a portion, and when 
she returned the remainder to me, she said, " That's a good 
boy — God will reward you for this." These words were uttered 
by her as a mere form of pious speech, proper to be addressed 
to a child ; but they conveyed to my mind an idea ; — they 
suggested intelligibly and practically, for the first time, the 
conception of a Divine reward for a kind action ; and I in- 

b 



vi 



INTRODUCTION. 



stantly put the question to her, " How will God reward me ?" 
" He will send you everything that is good." " What do you 
mean by ' good' — Will he send me more sugar-candy?" "Yes 
— certainly he will, if you are a good boy." " Will he make 
this piece of sugar-candy grow bigger ?" " Yes — God always 
rewards those who are kind-hearted." 

I could not rest contented with words, but at once proceeded 
to the verification of the assurance by experiment and obser- 
vation. I forthwith examined minutely all the edges of the 
remaining portion of sugar-candy, took an account of its di- 
mensions, and then, wrapping it carefully in paper, put it into 
a drawer, and waited with anxiety for its increase. I left it in 
the drawer all night, and next morning examined it with eager 
curiosity. I could discover no trace of alteration in its size, 
either of increase or decrease. I was greatly disappointed ; 
my faith in the reward of virtue by the Euler of the world re- 
ceived its first shock, and I feared that God did not govern the 
world in the manner which the nursery-maid had represented. 

Several years afterwards, I read in the Grammatical Exer- 
cises, an early class-book then used in the High School of 
Edinburgh, these words : " Beus gubernat mundum" " God 
governs the world." iC Mundus gubernatur a Deo," " The world 
is governed by God." These sentences were introduced into 
the book as exercises in Latin grammar ; and our teacher, 
the late Mr Luke Fraser, dealt with them merely as such, 
without entering into any consideration of the ideas embodied 
in them. 

This must have occurred about the year 1798, when I was 
ten years of age ; and the words " Bens gubernat mundum — 
Mundus gubernatur a Beo" made an indelible impression, and 
continued for years and years to haunt my imagination. As 
a child, I assumed the fact itself to be an indubitable truth, 
but felt a restless curiosity to discover lioiv Gocl exercises his 
jurisdiction. 

Some time afterwards, I read in the Edinburgh Advertiser, 
that Napoleon Buonaparte (instigated and assisted, as I used 
to hear, by the devil) governed France, and governed it very 
wickedly ; and that King George III., Mr Pitt, and Lord Mel- 
ville, governed Great Britain and Ireland — not very success- 
fully either, for I read of rebellion, and murders, and burnings, 



INTRODUCTION. 



vii 



and executions in Ireland ; while in Scotland my father com- 
plained of enormous Excise duties which threatened to involve 
him in ruin. I saw that my father ruled in his trade, and my 
mother in her household affairs, both pretty well on the whole ; 
but with such evident marks of imperfection, that it was im- 
possible to trace God's superintendence or direction in their 
administration. 

In the class in the High School of which I was a member, 
Mr Luke Fraser seemed to me to reign supreme ; and as I felt 
his government to be harsh, and often unjust, I could not re- 
cognise God in it either. Under his tuition, and that of Dr 
Adam, the Eector of the High School, and of Dr John Hill, 
the Professor of Latin in the University of Edinburgh, I be- 
came acquainted with the literature, the mythology, and the 
history of Greece and Home ; but in these no traces of the Di- 
vine government of the world were discernible. 

These were the only governments of which I then had ex- 
perience, or about which I could obtain any information ; and 
in none of them could I discover satisfactory evidence of God's 
interference in the affairs of men. On the contrary, it ap- 
peared to me, that one and all of the historical personages 
before named did just what they pleased, and that God took no 
account of their actions in this world, however He might deal 
with them in the next. They all seemed to acknowledge in 
words that God governs the world ; but, nevertheless, they ap- 
peared to me to act as if they were themselves independent 
and irresponsible governors, consulting only their own notions 
of what was right or wrong, and often pursuing what they 
considered to be their own interests, irrespective of God's 
asserted supremacy in human affairs. Most of them professed 
to believe in their accountability in the next world ; but this 
belief seemed to me like a rope of sand in binding their con- 
sciences. They rarely hesitated to encounter all the clangers of 
that judgment when their worldly interests or passions strong- 
ly solicited them to a course of action condemned by their 
professed creeds. 

From infancy I attended regularly an evangelical church, 
was early instructed in the Bible, and in the Shorter and 
Larger Catechisms, and the Confession of Faith of the Assem- 
bly of Divines at Westminster ; and read orthodox sermons 



viii 



INTRODUCTION. 



and treatises by various distinguished authors. In the Old 
Testament there were narratives of God's government of the 
Jewish nation , by the exercise of special acts of supernatural 
power, and I understood this as a clear and satisfactory exposi- 
tion of Divine government. In the New Testament, also, cer- 
tain special acts of Divine interference with the affairs of men 
were recorded, which likewise gave me great satisfaction, as 
evidences that God governs the world ; but I never could apply 
these examples to practical purposes. 

I learned, in some way which I do not now recollect, that 
during many ages after the close of the Scripture records, the 
Eoman Catholic priesthood had asserted that such acts of 
special supernatural administration continued, and that they 
themselves were the appointed instruments through whose 
medium it pleased God thus to manifest his power. But I 
never saio instances of this kind of government in my own 
sphere of life. 

In the course of time I read arguments and criticisms which 
carried with them an irresistible conviction, that these preten- 
sions of the Koman Catholic priesthood had been pious frauds 
practised on au ignorant and superstitious people.- Here, then, 
was another shock to my belief that God governs the world ; 
and the difficulty was increased by an obscure impression, that 
notwithstanding this denial by the Protestant divines, of the 
continuance of a special supernatural Providence acting through 
the Koman Catholic priesthood, they and their followers seemed 
to admit something very similar in their own favour.* As 
however, I could not discover, by observation, satisfactory evi- 
dence of special acts of Divine interference in human affairs, 
taking place in consequence of their solicitations, any more 
than in consequence of those of the Eoman Catholic priesthood, 
I arrived at the conclusion that all special acts of Divine 
administration had ceased with the Scripture times ; and thus 
I was again sent adrift into the great ocean of doubt, and no 
longer saw traces of the manner in which God governs the 
world in our day, whatever He might have done in the days of 
the Jewish nation. 

As I advanced in understanding, my theological studies 



See examples in \ oint in Chapter I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



ix 



rather increased than diminished these perplexities. I read 
that " not a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly 
Father," and that " the very hairs of our heads are numbered 
which seemed to indicate a very intimate and minute govern- 
ment of the world. But, simultaneously with this information, 
I was taught that God forgives those who offend against his 
laws, if they have faith in Jesus Christ and repent ; and that 
He often leaves the wicked to run the course of their sins in 
this world without punishing them, reserving his retribution 
for the day of judgment. This seemed to me to imply that 
God really does not govern the world in any intelligible or 
practical sense, but merely takes note of men's -actions, and 
commences his actual and efficient government only after the 
resurrection from the dead. 

During the time these speculations engaged my atten- 
tion, my mind opened to the import of the Galvinistic theo- 
logy which had formed the staple of my religious instruction. 
I was taught to repeat the Catechism from which an extract is 
given on page 186, and I attended regularly a church in which 
Calvinism was preached by one of the ministers, in a form 
which, to me, was very terrible. Conscious of being no better 
than my fellow-creatures, I could discover no reason why, if 
any were to be passed, over to the left hand at the day of judg- 
ment, I should not be one of the number. The narrative of 
the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, excited in rne only 
strong feelings of compassion for Him, and of indignation 
against his persecutors. I was overwhelmed by the terrors of 
a future judgment, and wished myself an inferior animal with- 
out a soul. So deep and habitual was the gloomy impression, 
that summer was rendered appalling by the prospect of thun- 
der storms, in one of which I might be struck instantaneously 
dead and precipitated in a moment into everlasting misery. 
In the autumn evenings, I used, to climb high up on the rocks 
of Edinburgh Castle, which overhung my father's house, and 
gaze with intense interest on " The Evening Star," or planet, 
that shone with resplendent brilliancy in the wake of the de- 
parted sun ; I longed to see into its internal economy, and 
thought : " Oh ! could I but discover that summer and winter, 
heat and cold, life and death, prevail in you as they do here, 
how happy should I be ! I should then believe that this world 



X 



INTRODUCTION. 



is not cursed, but that you, the planet, — and we, the earth, — 
are both such as God intended us to be ! " 

The distress occasioned by these impressions was aggravated 
by finding such doubts and difficulties described in the Cate- 
chism " as punishments of sin," and ascribed to " blindness of 
mind, a reprobate sense, and strong delusions." I believed 
this to be the fact, because at that time I had not heard or 
read a word calling in question the absolute truth of the doc- 
trines of the Catechism. The only information I then pos- 
sessed about " unbelief" and " unbelievers" was derived from 
sermons preached against them ; and it was not till a much 
later period that I became convinced that the feelings now 
mentioned arose from the intuitive revulsion of the moral, 
religious, and intellectual faculties with which I had been en- 
dowed, against the dogmas of Calvin. 

The only relief from these depressing views of man's qualities 
and condition was afforded by the perusal of " Bay on the Wis- 
dom of God in Creation," and subsequently " Paley's Natural 
Theology." At first, I feared that their views also were " strong 
delusions," butas myunderstanding gained strength, these works 
confirmed my faith that God does govern the world ; although, 
owing to their containing no clear exposition of the manner in 
which He does so, they conveyed rather an impression than a 
conviction of the fact. Moreover, as I never saw any person 
acting on that faith, it maintained itself in my mind chiefly as 
an impression ; and it thus remained for many years, not only 
without proof, but often against apparent evidence to the con- 
trary. My course of inquiry, therefore, was still onward ; and 
with a view to obtaining a solution of the problem, I studied a 
variety of works on moral and metaphysical subjects ; but from 
none of them did I receive any satisfaction. 

In point of fact, I reached to man's estate with a firm faith 
that God governs the world, but utterly baffled in all my at- 
tempts to discover liow this government is effected. Inter- 
course with society revealed to me that my earnest and literal 
application of the Calvinistic doctrines was idiosyncratic, and 
that ordinary believers were in the habit of modifying the 
sense in which they accepted them, pretty much to suit their 
own tastes. When I suggested that this was practising con- 
ventional hypocrisy, I was told that no other course was left 



INTRODUCTION. 



X 



open to a young man who depended on public opinion for suc- 
cess in his profession ; for were he to disclose his dissent from 
the religious standards of the country, he would be branded 
with the stamp of infidelity, suspected of immorality, and ob- 
structed in every step of his career. Besides, it was hinted 
that Scripture itself recognises the admissibility in such cases 
of compliance with the established forms of worship, even 
when these are idolatrous. See 2 Kings, chap, v., verses 17, 
18, and 19.* 

The feeling of disappointment became more intense in pro- 
portion as a succession of studies presented to my mind clear 
and thoroughly convincing evidence, that in certain depart- 
ments of nature God does unquestionably govern the world. 
"When, for example, I comprehended the laws of the solar sys- 
tem, as elucidated by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and La- 
place, and perceived the most perfect adaptation, harmony, and 
regularity, pervading the revolutions of the planets and their 
satellites, the conviction that God governs in that system was 
at once irresistible, complete, and delightful. The planets, 
however, were far away, and I longed to discover the same 
order and harmony on earth ; but in vain. 

My next studies were Anatomy and Physiology. From these 
sources new light broke in upon my mind. Clear, however, as 
the examples of Divine government afforded by these sciences 
appeared to be, I found no application made of them beyond 
the domains of surgery. No practical inference was deduced 
from them to regulate human conduct in the ordinary circum- 
stances of life. When I left the medical school, all traces of 
the government of God in the world were lost, and my feeling 
of disappointment returned. 

Chemistry was the next science which engaged my atten- 
tion, and in the qualities and relations of matter, it presented 

* " Naaman" (the leper, captain of the host of the King of Syria) " said" (to Elisha 
who had cured him by bidding him wash in Jordan), " Shall there not then, I pray 
thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth ? for thy servant will hence- 
forth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In 
this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the House of 
Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house 
of Rimmon : when I bow myself in the House of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant 
in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little 
way." 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



extraordinary illustrations of Divine government. In the re- 
velations made by this science, I discovered powers conferred 
on matter, capable of producing the most stupendous results, 
yet all regulated in their action with a degree of precision that 
admitted of even mathematical and arithmetical computation, 
and appeared irresistibly to proclaim the all-pervading God. 
Yet when I left the chemical laboratory and returned into the 
world of business, these delicious visions fled, and I could no 
longer trace the Divine government in the affairs of men. 

In this condition of mind I continued for several years, and 
recollect meeting with only two works which approached to 
the solution of any portion of the enigma which puzzled my 
understanding. These were " Smith's Wealth of Nations," 
and " Mai thus on Population." The first appeared to me to 
demonstrate that God actually governs in the relations of com- 
merce ; that He has established certain natural laws which 
regulate the interests of men in the exchange of commodities 
and labour ; and that those laws are in harmony with the dic- 
tates of our moral and intellectual faculties, and wisely related 
to the natural productions of the different soils and climates of 
the earth. 

I first read the work of Mr Malthus in 1805, and he ap- 
peared to me to prove that God reigns, through the medium 
of fixed natural laws, in another department of human affairs 
— namely, in that of population. The facts adduced by him 
shewed that the Creator has bestowed on mankind a power of 
increasing their numbers much beyond the ratio of the dimi- 
nution that, in favourable circumstances, will be caused by 
death ; and, consequently, that they must limit their increase 
by moral restraint ; or augment, by ever-extending cultivation 
of the soil, their means of subsistence in proportion to their 
numbers, or expose themselves to the evil of being reduced 
by disease and famine to the number which the actual pro- 
duction of food will maintain. These propositions, like the 
doctrines of Adam Smith, met with general rejection; and 
their author, far from being honoured as a successful ex- 
pounder of a portion of God's method of governing the world, 
was assailed with unmitigated abuse, and his views were stre- 
nuously resisted in practice. 

Bishop Butler also threw a flash of light across the dark 



INTRODUCTION. 



xiii 



horizon ; but it was only a flash. He announced clearly the 
great principle of a moral government of the world by natural 
laws ; but he did little to elucidate the means by which it is 
accomplished. In consequence of his not understanding the 
means, his views in regard to the Divine government of the 
world, although in the main sound, are not practical. He was 
compelled to resort to the world to come, in order to find com- 
pensation for what appeared to him to be imperfections in the 
moral government of this world, in some instances in which a 
more minute knowledge of the mode of God's present admi- 
nistration would have convinced him that the apparent imper- 
fection is removable on earth. 

During the continuance of these perplexities, this considera- 
tion presented itself to my mind, — that in every department 
of nature, the evidences of Divine government, of the mode in 
which it is administered, and of the laws by which it is main- 
tained, become more and more clear and comprehensible, in 
proportion to the exactness of our knowledge of the objects 
through the instrumentality of which it is accomplished. 

Although, in this manner, partial light appeared to dawn on 
the government of physical nature, the administration of the 
moral world remained a complete enigma, and it was not until 
a comparatively recent period that glimpses of order began to 
appear in it also. It was Dr Grail's discovery of the functions 
of the brain that led me by imperceptible steps to the views 
on this subject which are presented in the present volume ; 
and they rest on it alone. I mention this fact, because I am 
well aware that this discovery continues to be ignored or re- 
jected by almost all men of science, and by the people in ge- 
neral of Europe. Nevertheless, I have a complete convic- 
tion, founded on observation and experience extended over 
forty years, that, although far from perfection, it is essentially 
founded in truth, that its doctrines require only to be tried by 
the standard of nature to be accepted by men of ordinary ho- 
nesty and intelligence, and that enough is ascertained to war- 
rant the inferences here deduced. 

It becomes important, therefore, in support of the basis 
on which the most important conclusions of this work are 
founded, to endeavour to throw light on the causes of the long- 
rejection of Phrenology. 



xiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



In 1812 I attended a course of Lectures on Anatomy and 
Physiology delivered by Dr John Barclay, then the most es- 
teemed teacher of these sciences in Edinburgh ; and after a 
display of the mechanical structure of the brain, by slicing it 
across from side to side, commencing at the top, which occu- 
pied four hours, I heard him declare that the functions of its 
different parts were unknown. I had previously studied men- 
tal philosophy in the standard works on the subject, and knew 
that in them no exposition was given of organs by which the 
different faculties act, or are influenced. When, therefore, 
Gall's doctrine that particular mental powers are connected 
with different portions of the brain was announced in England 
by Dr Spurzheim, I was convinced that neither anatomists, 
physiologists, nor mental philosophers, were in possession of 
any knowledge whatever on the subject ; nevertheless, they 
rejected it with contumely and disdain. At first I was led 
away by the boldness and confidence of their condemnation ; 
but after attending a course of lectures by Dr Spurzheim, and 
seeing the evidence he presented in proof of the discovery, I 
was puzzled to account for the unmeasured abuse that was 
heaped on it by men of almost all conditions and attainments, 
in absolute ignorance of its merits. 

In the course of reflection, it appeared to me that this state of 
public opinion arose from inattention to two facts which were 
indisputable, and which were decisive as to the competency of 
the objectors, in the actual state of their knowledge, to pro- 
nounce any rational judgment on the subject : these were — 
First : That structure does not reveal the vital functions of 
organs ; and, Second : That we have no consciousness, of the 
functions of the different parts of the brain. Now, the acut- 
est intellect having no knowledge of the functions of the brain 
except that derived from structure and consciousness, was ab- 
solutely incapable of telling whether Gall's views were true or 
false. Nevertheless, this was the actual condition of mind of 
the opponents, and it continues to be the state of most of those 
who reject Phrenology in the present day. 

On the 5th May 1819 I communicated these propositions to 
Dr P. M. Koget, who had then published in the Supplement 
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica a pretended refutation of Gall's 
" Cranioscopy," &c, and challenged him to confess or deny their 



INTRODUCTION". 



XV 



truth and relevancy in relation to the question in hand.* But 
he answered that the essential point at issue is : " Whether 
there really exists such a uniform correspondence between 
certain forms of the head, skull, or brain, and certain characters 
of mind, as can be distinctly recognised by observation;" and 
that, in his opinion, the evidence derived from the observations 
of Drs Gall and Spurzheim " is quite inconclusive." In reply, 
I wrote that if the object be important, and if there be no 
method of attaining it, except that followed by Grail and Spurz- 
heim, why, if their evidence was insufficient, did he not pro- 
ceed to observe nature and seek for evidence of his own ? He 
rejoined : " My comments of course applied solely to the evi- 
dence brought forward by its founders, Drs Gall and Spurz- 
heim ; I accordingly thought it right to omit all reference to 
my personal experience on the matter, more especially as I 
was not exactly writing in my own name ; and I felt it nowise 
incumbent on me to lay the foundations of any similar system 
myself, or presume to direct others in the pursuit, by laying 
down a plan of operations to be followed for that purpose." 

I have referred to this correspondence because it represents 
the condition of mind of the men who rejected Dr Gall's dis- 
covery forty years ago, and whose writings and authority 
formed the public opinion on it at that time. I can safely 
affirm that, after the most careful study of the objections, the 
conviction was irresistibly forced on me that their authors had 
not made themselves acquainted with the evidence adduced by 
Drs Gall and Spurzheim, and had never seriously considered 
the propositions that GalVs method is the only one by which the 
object can be reached, and that every person who has not re- 
sorted to the practice of it, is absolutely and necessarily igno- 
rant whether his discoveries are true or false. 

The only exception to this style of condemnation known to 
me was presented by Mr John Abernethy, who said : " I see no 
mode by which we can with propriety admit or reject the asser- 
tions of Drs Gall and Spurzheim, except by pursuing the same 
course of investigations which they themselves have followed ; 
a task of great labour and difficulty, and one which, for various 
reasons, I should feel great repugnance to undertake." f 

* See the correspondence in my translation of Gall on the Cerebellum, p. 217. 
f Memoir of John Abernethy, by George Macilwain. 



xvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



These observations are worthy of the honest and powerful 
mind that uttered them. The study is difficult, perhaps the 
most difficult of all subjects of scientific inquiry. The difficul- 
ties arise from the following circumstances. Phrenology is the 
Physiology of the Brain ; and is not, and cannot become, an ex- 
act, but must ever remain an estimative science. In no depart- 
ment of Physiology can mathematical measurements be ap- 
plied to determine the size of organs, on which, cceteris paribus, 
the amount of their vital power depends. We must estimate 
their size by tact, improved by experience. Again, the force 
of a vital function cannot be mathematically measured, but 
must be estimated. In Phrenology, therefore, we have to learn 
— 1st, To know the exact situation of each organ ; 2dly, To 
estimate its absolute size, and its size in relation to the other 
organs ; 3dly, To discover the primitive faculty on which 
each particular mental manifestation depends ; to estimate 
the strength of that faculty ; and then to compare its strength 
with the size of its organs ; 4thly, To discover by observa- 
tion and experience what changes in the direction of the 
faculties are occasioned by the combinations of their organs in 
different degrees of relative size ; Sthly, To estimate the effects 
of temperament and training on the strength and activity of the 
faculties ; 6thly, To pursue these inquiries in a wide field of 
active life, and to devote time, observation, and intelligence 
to the study, with a sincere desire to arrive at truth. All this 
is possible — has been done — and may be accomplished by an 
inquirer of adequate ability who will qualify himself for con- 
ducting it by obtaining knowledge of the method and prin- 
ciples through which success can be attained. But it is no 
undue pretension to affirm that not one of the persons who so 
authoritatively pronounced Phrenology to be false, had qua- 
lified himself, in this manner, to form a judgment on the sub- 
ject. In point of fact, as already observed, they were wholly 
unaware of their own incompetence, for the reasons before as- 
signed, to form any rational opinion on its merits. 

Yet the generation of Lecturers and Professors,* Preachers, 

* The University of Edinburgh possesses two Professors who form exceptions to the 
observations in the text. Professor Gregory has long been a strenuous advocate of 
Phrenology ; and Dr Laycock, Professor of the Practice of Medicine, without enrolling 
himself as a Phrenologist, recognises the soundness of its general principles, and ap- 
plies them to cerebral pathology. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xvii 



Reviewers, mental philosophers, and the reading public, who 
continue to reject Phrenology, have almost universally derived 
their opinions of it from the representations given by those 
guides whom they implicitly followed in their youth. Lord 
Jeffrey denied that the mind in its higher functions uses organs 
at all ; and Dr William Stenhouse Kirkes, in his Handbook of 
Physiology recently published, informs us that " the reason 
or spirit of man, which has knowledge of Divine truths, and 
the conscience, with its natural discernment of right and 
wrong, cannot be proved to have any connection ivith the brain."* 
The reader will judge of the soundness of this statement by 
comparing it with the observations made on pages 27 to 32, 
and 42 to 44, of this volume, and also the facts adduced in 
the Appendix, No. II. 

The young men of the present generation continue to im- 
bibe the prejudices of their teachers without examination, and 
to retail them. Two examples have recently appeared in 
Edinburgh. Mr Edward Haughton, M.R.C.S.E., has published 
" The Criticism of an Essay" (by Mr Herring) " on Phreno- 
logy, read at the Hunterian Medical Society;" which criticism 
is remarkable only for puerility of thinking, and ignorance 
of the writings of the controversialists who have preceded him ; 
and obviously owes its origin to a desire to gratify " Dr J. 
Hughes Bennett, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the 
University of Edinburgh, &c, &c," to whom it is dedicated. 
The views of Phrenology communicated by this gentleman to 
his students may be inferred from the " Criticism/' 

The second example is afforded by Mr Thomas Spencer 
Baynes, LL.B., in a eulogy by him on Sir William Hamilton, 
published in the " Edinburgh Essays." He informs us that 
Sir William " proceeded to test the worth of Phrenology by 
an examination" of the facts on which it " professed to be 
wholly founded." " He selected several of the leading points 
laid down as the physiological basis of the system, such as the 
relative size and function of the cerebellum, the age at which 
the brain is fully developed, the presence and value of the 
frontal sinus — and found, after a series of .experiments, that 
the dictum of the phrenologist on each point was not only 



* 3d Edition, p. 453. 



xviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



erroneous, but absolutely false." This is strong language ; and 
Mr Baynes, after what I am about to mention, will perceive 
that he has exposed himself to the application of it to himself. 

First — Sir William Hamilton, in contradiction to the Phre- 
nologists, asserted that " the cerebella of the two sexes abso- 
lutely are nearly equal, — the preponderance rather in favour 
of the women." But Dr J ohn Eeid, Chandos Professor of Ana- 
tomy and Medicine in the University of St Andrews, afterwards 
published* the average result arrived at by him, after weighing 
53 male brains and 34 female brains, as follows : — 

Male. Female. 

Cerebellum, 5 oz. 4 dr. — 4 oz. 12J dr. ; difference in favour 
of the male, 7J dr. 

Dr Keid's investigations were continued by Dr T. B. Pea- 
cock. He informs us that his tables f include the weights ob- 
tained by both Dr Eeid and himself, and " are based on 356 
weights of the encephalon." He states the average weight of 
the cerebellum in 57 males between 25 and 55 years of age, at 
5 oz. 2 '6 dr. — and in 34 females between the same ages, at 4 oz. 
124 dr ; making a difference in favour of the male of 6*2 dr., 
in direct contradiction to Sir William Hamilton's assertion. 

Secondly — As to the Frontal Sinus. By an arrangement 
between Sir William Hamilton and me, Professors Christison 
and Syme, and the late Dr John Scott, were chosen as a court 
of inquiry to test the validity of Sir William Hamilton's ob- 
jections against Phrenology, and they began with the frontal 
sinus. After hearing Sir William Hamilton at great length 
on the subject, the umpires unanimously set aside all the 
skulls produced by him, as insufficient to support his proposi- 
tions ; and the proceedings under the reference never went far- 
ther. Their verdict is printed verbatim in the Phrenological 
Journal, vol. v., p. 34. 

Thirdly — Mr Baynes alludes to a correspondence between 
Sir William Hamilton and Dr Spurzheim, and says : "But the 
points at issue were never brought to a decision, as Dr Spurz- 
heim refused to submit them to any adequate and impartial 
judges, demanding . instead that they should be discussed be- 
fore a popular assembly, and decided by the voice of a public 

* London and Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science for April 1843. 
| Published in the same Journal for August and September 1846. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



meeting. Of course Sir William Hamilton had too much re- 
spect for himself and the scientific questions at stake, to bring 
them before such an utterly incompetent tribunal." Now, this 
statement betrays culpable ignorance of the facts, or a reckless 
disregard of truth ; for Sir William Hamilton addressed his 
first attack on Phrenology and Phrenologists to a popular au- 
dience of ladies and gentlemen assembled by advertisements, 
and he renewed his assaults before the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, also a public body. (See Phrenological J ournal, vol. iv., 
p. 378.) In a letter dated 18th February 1828, " Dr Spurz- 
heim returns compliments to Sir William Hamilton/' and says, 
" Sir William Hamilton publicly attacked Phrenology before 
Dr Spurzheim visited Edinburgh ; it is now Sir William Ha- 
milton's duty to prove publicly his assertions. Dr Spurzheim, 
therefore, repeats for the fourth and last time that he is will- 
ing to meet Sir William Hamilton before the public." Again, 
on 29th February 1828, Dr Spurzheim writes that he " would 
have thankfully availed himself of a private meeting with Sir 
William Hamilton, and received from him private instruction 
in Anatomy and Physiology ; but since Sir William publicly 
attacked Phrenology and its believers, Dr Spurzheim can meet 
him only before the public." (Phrenological J ournal, vol. v., pp. 
39-42.) In the words in italics, Mr Baynes has, through sheer 
ignorance, I presume, of the facts about which he was writing, 
pronounced a severe censure on the object of his eulogy. Nei- 
ther party, probably, desired to constitute the public a "tribunal" 
to "decide" the questions at issue ; but as Sir William Hamil- 
ton, by addressing a popular audience, had obviously intended 
to influence public opinion against Phrenology, Dr Spurzheim 
was certainly entitled to insist on having a public opportunity 
to refute his objections. 

So little consideration have physiologists bestowed on the 
question of the best method of discovering the functions of the 
brain, that Dr Carpenter, no mean authority, says* that " All 
our positive knowledge of the functions of the nervous system 
in general, save that which results from our own conscious- 
ness of what passes within ourselves, and that which we ob- 
tain from watching the manifestations of disease in man, is 
derived from observations of the phenomena exhibited by ani- 

* Principles of Human Physiology, p. 681. Fourth Edition, 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



mals, made the subjects of experiments ; and in the interpre- 
tations of these, great ^caution mnst be exercised." Here, then, 
Dr Galls method of comparing the strength of particular men- 
tal manifestations, such as Benevolence, Self-esteem, Love of 
Children, and so forth, in healthy human beings, with the size 
of particular parts of their brains, as a means of discovering the 
healthy functions, is absolutely ignored ; while we are referred 
to consciousness as one source of knowledge of these functions, 
in utter disregard of the fact that consciousness does not reveal 
to us even the existence of the brain, much less its functions. 
If it did, how could men like Jeffrey and Dr Kirkes deny the 
necessity of organs of any kind in performing the higher ope- 
rations of the mind ? He refers to morbid manifestations of 
mind, or Mental Pathology, as the second source of knowledge ; 
but in regard to all other vital organs, it is held that Pathology 
is rendered much more instructive when preceded by a sound 
physiology; in other words, it is advantageous to know the 
function of an organ in its healthy state, in order to arrive at a 
sound judgment concerning the effects of disease in altering 
that function. 

Dr Draper, an eminent American physiologist, entertains 
views widely different from those of Dr Kirkes. He says : 
" Nearly all philosophers who have cultivated, in recent times, 
that branch of knowledge (Metaphysics), have viewed with 
apprehension the rapid advances of Physiology, foreseeing tha* 
it would attempt the final solution of problems which have 
exercised the ingenuity of the last twenty centuries. In this 
they are not mistaken. Certainly it is desirable that some 
new method should be introduced, which may give point and 
precision to whatever metaphysical truths exist, and enable 
us to distinguish, separate, and dismiss what are only vain and 
empty speculations."* 

Religious prejudice has constituted another obstacle to the 
progress of Phrenology. The functions of the brain being un- 
known, and the whole phenomena of consciousness having 
been habitually ascribed to an immaterial mind acting inde- 
pendently of organs, there was a shock to religious feeling 

* Human Physiology, &c, by John W. Draper, M.D., New York, 1856, p. 259. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxi 



against Dr Gall's discovery, which expressed itself in a variety 
of ways. No rational person is ever heard casting ridicule and 
reproach against the structure and functions of the lungs, the 
heart, the stomach, or any other organ, the structure and 
uses of which are known ; because these are acknowledged to 
bear conspicuous indications of Divine Wisdom and Goodness. 
But, apparently owing to the structure and functions of the 
brain being unknown, they met with very different treatment. 
Gall's description of its uses was made the subject of every 
vulgar jest that petulant ignorance could invent ; the cry of 
materialism was raised against it ; and it has been charged 
with degrading man to the level of the brutes. These objec- 
tions appear to me to be the consequences of sheer ignorance. 
I have accompanied religious and intelligent persons to the 
Phrenological Museum, and shown to them the small brain 
that is invariably accompanied by idiotcy ; casts of the heads 
of executed criminals, exhibiting a large development of the 
base, and a deficient development of the upper or moral 
and religious portions of the head, and often a deficient de- 
velopment of the anterior lobe, devoted to intellect. In con- 
trast to these, I have drawn their attention to casts of the 
heads and brains of men of high moral, religious, and intel- 
lectual endowments, and pointed out the differences in the 
proportions of these regions, between their heads and those of 
the criminally disposed. And I have placed before their eyes 
a large collection of the skulls of men and women of different 
nations, and pointed out the predominant development of the 
moral and intellectual regions in the most highly civilized, 
and the defective development of these in the savage and bar- 
barous races ; and I have said to these visitors : " These forms 
and proportions are natural : they proceed from God's laws go- 
verning our organism : Gall did not make them ; he only 
called attention to their significance." But even such an ap- 
peal was ineffectual to rouse their serious attention. Their 
minds were so completely preoccupied by spiritual notions, 
that the ideas of the brain being an Institution of God, and of 
its different forms and proportions having any significance 
worthy of their attention, did not penetrate their intellects. 
They continued to laugh and joke, and object, and ridicule 
the whole subject, as if the brain were mere waste matter 

c 



xxii 



INTRODUCTION. 



placed within the skull to give it weight, and keep it steady 
on the shoulders. I recollect, in particular, addressing in 
this manner one very intelligent religious person, of some 
scientific and literary attainments. He afterwards wrote an 
article in the North British Eeview, in which he spoke sneer- 
ingly of Dr Gall as " the man of bumps " apparently without 
considering that God made the brain, and that as the brain 
gives form to the skull, it follows that if Gall be " the man. of 
bumps/' a fortiori is the Deity " the God of bumps !" The 
writings of religious men against the Physiology of the Brain 
are full of similar stolid manifestations of impiety. 

How differently Mr Abernethy looked on the human struc- 
ture is beautifully expressed in the following extract from his 
Memoirs before cited. He mentions that Galen said : " In ex- 
plaining these things ' (the structure and functions of living 
organisms and the laws by which these are regulated), " I es- 
teem myself as composing a solemn hymn to the great Archi- 
tect of our bodily frame, in which I. think there is more true 
piety than in sacrificing whole hecatombs of oxen, or in burn- 
ing the most costly perfumes ; for, first, I endeavour from 
His works to know Him myself, and afterwards, by the same 
means, to shew Him to others, to inform them how great is 
His Wisdom, Goodness, and Power." 

It is only the circumstance of little having been known of 
the structure* and functions of the brain before Dr Gall dis- 
covered them, that, in my opinion, can account for such ir- 
rational treatment as Phrenology has received from the reli- 
gious world. But in this respect, it has only shared the fate 
of all other important discoveries that have gone greatly 
beyond the limits of contemporary knowledge. The earth 
continued to whirl men round on its surface every twenty- 
four hours, while they w r ere stoutly denying that it did so ; 
and they in vain appealed to the evidence of their senses 
to prove that it stood still. The solution of the question lay 
beyond the sphere of their senses. In like manner, our con- 
temporaries are actually manifesting their different emotional 
and intellectual faculties with a degree of energy, correspond- 
ing, cceteris paribus, to the size of their brains, even when they 



* See evidence as to the discovery of the structure of the brain, in the Appendix, 4 
No. III., to my work, " Phrenology applied to Painting and Sculpture. " 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxiii 



are using those very organs in denying the fact. They in 
vain appeal to the testimony of their own consciousness for 
evidence to support their denial ; for, as the proof of the rota- 
tion of the globe lay beyond the domain of the senses unaided 
by science, so, as already observed, the evidence of the func- 
tions of the brain lies out of the region of consciousness. So 
thoroughly, however, was the conviction that the earth stands 
still, ingrained in men s minds by the appearances of the hea- 
vens and the earth ; so strongly was it supported by tradition 
as ancient as the human race, by books of the highest scien- 
tific authority, and by religion ; that even after demonstra- 
tive evidence was produced of the fact of its motion, men could 
not imagine or believe it, but retained the established convic- 
tions and transmitted them to their children. In 1671, thirty 
years after the death of Galileo, and two years after Newton 
had commenced lecturing in Cambridge, Dr John Owen, the 
most eminent divine among the Independents, describes the 
Copernican System as " the late hypothesis fixing the sun in 
the centre of the world— built on fallible phenomena and 
advanced by many arbitrary presumptions against evident tes- 
timonies of Scripture, and reasons as probable as any which 
are produced in its confirmation." {Prelim. Exerc. xxxvi. to 
Hebrews, § 16, p. 636 ; Edit. 1840.) 

A parallel example of the extreme difficulty which even su- 
perior men experience in embracing new ideas is presented 
by the cases of Dr Thomas Brown and Dr John Abercrombie. 
Both of these persons were practising physicians in Edin- 
burgh, and both of them published works on mental philoso- 
phy. As physicians, both of them treated mental maladies as 
diseases of the brain ; but, as metaphysicians, both discussed 
mental phenomena as if the mind were wholly independent of 
organs ! A general reference to the brain as the organ of the 
mind may be found in their works, but they ignored the de- 
pendence of particular mental powers on particular portions of 
the brain, and were blind to all the consequences that How 
from this fact. In like manner, so deeply and extensively is 
the conviction entertained that the feeling and thinking entity 
of man is something which acts independently of matter, and 
so strongly does this notion appear to be supported by con- 
sciousness ; by nearly the universal acknowledgment of man- 



xxiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



kind, past and present ; by the authority of the profonndest 
investigators of mental science ; and by nearly all the religions 
teachers of all countries, — that no amount of evidence of the 
influence of the brain on the mental manifestations has been 
able to shake the belief of the great majority of the people of 
this age on the subject. It was only after successive gene- 
rations, denying the earth's rotation, had been buried, and after 
the lapse of ages, that prejudice so far gave way that the de- 
monstration of its motion was allowed to reach the minds of 
the young in their education. After this was achieved, the new 
doctrine was regarded by all instructed persons as a fact which 
had always been true, and with which every other well-ascer- 
tained phenomenon in nature was, and always had been, in ac- 
cordance. It is probable, therefore, that it will be only after 
several more generations, practically denying the functions of 
the brain, have passed away, that serious attention will be ge- 
nerally bestowed on the evidence of its being the organ of the 
mental functions, and the chief instrument by means of which 
the government of the moral world is conducted; and only after 
the lapse of a long series of years will a just appreciation of the 
importance of Gall's discovery have so far triumphed over an 
ignorant prejudice against it, that it will be generally taught to 
the young as science. When this shall have been accomplished, 
educated men will allow that it has always been a fact, and 
they will proceed to bring their other ideas of nature into har- 
mony with it, and to act upon them. The confusion which 
has so long appeared to reign in the moral world will then 
probably begin to disappear, and man will find himself master 
of his own destinies, to an extent of which at present no ade- 
quate conception can be formed. 

But the grand religious objection to Phrenology has been, 
that it leads to materialism. It appears to me that man pos- 
sesses no faculties which enable him to discover the essence 
of things, and that, therefore, he is incapable of arriving at 
any certain conclusion concerning the nature of the thinking 
entity in man and animals. But even assuming that it is 
the living brain which thinks and feels, those who urge 
this as an objection, appear never to have considered that if 
God has seen proper to employ the ten inorganic substances 
named on page 23 (to which Dr George Wilson has added 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXV 



Fluorine), as materials with which to constitute the body and 
brain, and to endow them, while so employed, with all the 
vital and mental functions they possess, cerebral matter can- 
not be to man a fit object of aversion, contempt, and ridi- 
cule. I beg religious readers to look on this figure 




Here we perceive the nerves of all the senses entering into 
the brain, and the spinal cord proceeding from it; and we know 
that the cord sends forth nerves, one set of which conveys the 
mandates of the will down to, and the other conveys sensation 
up to it from, all parts of the body. I appeal to every reflect- 
ing person who believes in God, whether this complicated struc- 
ture, with these connections, should continue to be treated 
only with contumely and aversion, as has been the practice in 
times past, or whether we should not approach the investiga- 
tion of it with that seriousness of feeling which we exhibit in 
studying the other portions of the human structure which we 
believe to be of Divine origin. This appeal is specially neces- 
sary, because it is chiefly through the influence of religious 
persons that, even in the few schools into which Physiology 
has been introduced as a branch of instruction, the functions 
of the different parts of the brain, as organs of particular men- 
tal faculties, continue to be deliberately excluded. 



xxvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



This religions opposition to Phrenology appears more strik- 
ingly impolitic and absurd when we consider the present state 
of the dogmatic faith of the British Empire. The failure 
of the means of religious instruction hitherto employed has 
forced itself upon the attention even of religious men. The 
Kev. B. C. Savage, A.M., Vicar of Nuneaton, &c, in a Letter to 
the Earl of Denbigh, says :* " We find this melancholy fact re- 
corded against us, that on the census Sunday in March 1851, out 
of our population of 475,013, only 75,706 attended anyplace of 
worship connected with the Church of England ; and that the 
whole amount of persons (including the Sunday Schools) at- 
tending any place of worship in Warwickshire on that day was 
only 142,227, leaving 332,786 in this county who were absent 
from the worship of Almighty God on that day." In Birming- 
ham and Coventry, the proportions of persons absent from pub- 
lic worship on that clay to those present were similar to the 
foregoing ; and the Keverend Vicar observes, that " it cannot 
be said the churches were deserted and the chapels filled ; your 
Lordship will observe there were more vacant sittings in the 
places of dissenting worship than in the churches" (P. 6). "But 
here is the fearful fact, that out of a population (in Birming- 
ham) of 232,841, only 45,544 attended any place of worship in 
the morning ; only 6877 in the afternoon ; and only 33,564 in 
the evening. And the numbers in the morning and afternoon 
would include many of the Sunday School children, of whom 
there are 21,406!" (P. 7.) 

Mr Savage adds : " Surely, My Lord, this is a startling fact, 
which, while it arouses our fears and calls forth our sorrow, 
should awaken also our deepest sympathy in searching out the 
cause of this disregard for, and neglect of, the ordinances of 
religion and the services of the Church." (P. 6.) 

" And this leads to our Second point, a consideration of the 
B«emedy most suitable to meet this alarming, but true, repre- 
sentation of our present social condition. The great question 
doubtless is, how shall this threatening evil be met and be dis- 
sipated ? how shall the masses of the population be delivered 
from the spiritual and moral pestilence which is already so 
fearful, and which by every day's delay grows into more over- 
whelming certainty of desolation and ruin to all that we hold 

* London : Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday. 1856. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxvii 



dear and sacred ? An increase of Churches — an increase of 
the Pastorate — an increase of the means of Education and of 
children brought under the influence of our Schools, both day 
and Sunday — the erection of Eeformatories for juvenile offen- 
ders — the establishment of ragged schools — these no doubt are 
all needed, and are all valuable and indispensable helps to the 
Church in the great work which is now before her — but these 
do not accomplish it. These do not reach the evil in all its 
varied ramifications ; some touch it at one point and some at 
another ; but still the evil exists and is daily increasing. — We 
want an agency which will reach where these do not reach, and 
which will aid and strengthen them where they do." (P. 16.) 

The agency which he recommends is " the employment of 
pious, sober-minded, and judicious Laymen, properly qualified 
to work under the Clergyman, in reading the Scriptures and vi- 
siting from house to house, and thus to invade and penetrate 
the dark dense mass of ignorance, prejudice, and irreligion, 
which exists to the expression of the Church's sympathy and 
of her care for immortal souls/' It is implied that only the 
old formulas are to be used, and the old doctrines inculcated 
by these laymen, in the face of all the experience here recorded 
of the want of power in these to interest and attract the people ! 
As the foregoing representation applies more or less to every 
part of Great Britain and Ireland, I have taken the liberty, in 
the following work, to suggest something additional to the 
means recommended by Mr Savage; and, however erroneous 
my views may appear, it is clear that something besides the 
system that has failed is needed, to carry forward the civiliza- 
tion of the country; and, perhaps, in a multitude of counsellors, 
wisdom may be found. 

A grand obstacle to the discovery of remedies for these evils 
has been raised by the practice of many religious persons 
of denouncing as infidels and "bad men" all who dissent from 
the accredited standards of faith and suggest improvements on 
them. This conduct has at length led to a reaction, which is 
constantly gaining strength. Within the last twenty years 
not only various doctrines, but, in some instances, the whole 
fabric of Christianity itself, have been subjected to numerous 
searching, logical, and temperate assaults. In support of this 
remark, it is necessary only to refer to the following among 



xxviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



many similar works which have appeared within that time : 
Froude's Nemesis of Faith : — T. Parker s Discourse of Matters 
pertaining to Religion : — Religious Thoughts of a Believer in 
Nature : — Greg's Creed of Christendom : — Mackay's Progress 
of the Intellect : — De Wette's Introduction to the Old Testa- 
ment, translated by T. Parker : — Eiehhorn's Introduction to the 
same : — Chevalier Bunsen's " Gott in der Geschichte :" — Mac- 
naught on Inspiration: — Donaldson's " Christian Orthodoxy," 
and " Jasher :" — " Hebrew Records," by Dr Giles : — Dr Da- 
vidson's vol. in new edition of Home's Introduction: — Cole- 
ridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit : — Jowett's Commen- 
tary on Paul's Epistles : — F. Newman's Phases of Faith, and 
other works: — The Westminster Review, passim: — National 
Review, January 1857; Article, " Spurgeon and his popularity." 

I give this list to impress, if possible, religious persons with 
a perception of the position of Religion in the present day, in 
the hope of inducing them to listen with patience and can- 
dour to suggestions offered in the spirit, not of destruction* 
but of improvement. As it is chiefly through the periodical 
press that they seek to cast obloquy on reformers, I beg to 
call their attention to the passage quoted from Lamartine on 
the title page of this work, and recommend the following ex- 
amples of liberality to their imitation. 

In " Lowe's Edinburgh Magazine" for July 1848, said to have 
been an organ of the Free Church, the following observations 
occur :■ — " Now let speculative Philosophy take warning and 
encouragement from the progress of Geology, if it would assert 
its own honour, or offer a spontaneous testimony to the majes- 
ty of truth. And for ourselves, we hesitate not to aver, that 
the honest truth-seeking infidel, when handling the pure sym- 
bols of some favourite science, which he knows dispassionately 

* In a work entitled " At Home and Abroad," containing selections from the corre- 
spondence of the late Countess D'Ossoli (Margaret Fuller), lately published in the U. S., 
we find the following account of Thomas Carlyle and his conversation : " He has touched 
the rocks, and they have given forth musical answer ; little more was wanting to begin 
to construct the City. But that little was wanting, and the work of construction is left 
to those that come after him ; nay all attempts of the kind, he is the readiest to deride, 
fearing new shams worse than the old, unable to trust the general action of a thought, 
and finding no heroic man, no natural king to represent it, and challenge his confidence." 
In Chap. I. I have freely availed myself of Mr Carlyle's powerful eloquence in exposing 
error. I should doubly rejoice should he now try to extinguish the foregoing reproach 
by making equally splendid efforts to build up^a new fabric of truth. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 



and loves disinterestedly, will make a larger contribution 
towards the advancement of even religions truth, because un- 
designedly he explores and interprets the operation of harmo- 
nious law in the universe of God, than the rigorous and brist- 
ling divine, who, with iron tongue and leaden brains, would 
engulph both science and religion under the crushing terrors 
of one enormous anathema/' 

" An Atheist," says the " Nonconformist," a religious news- 
paper conducted with great liberality and ability, " is not to be 
tabooed. He is not to be thrust out of the pale of humanity. 
Our puritan forefathers would have branded and imprisoned 
him ; we would reason and plead with him. To us he is, and 
to them he ought to have been, a man and a brother. If he 
really believes there is no God {prove it he cannot), the 1 por- 
tentous heroism' of such a creed awakes within us thrilling 
emotions of wonder and surprise. And if with this no-belief 
he connects a life irreproachable and unselfish, if with this no- 
belief he associates high patriotic yearnings and generous po- 
litical sentiments, and if with this no-belief never a word of 
scorn or cankering hate for those who are entrapped by ' su- 
perstition' escapes his lips, then we dare not despise, much less 
loathe, such a man : we can give him the right hand of true 
friendship, and not fearing that he will make us worse, we will 
try to make him better. By all means let the Atheist have 
free speech, let him address the public ear by the press and by 
the platform with most unchartered liberty ; we would no 
more denounce him than we would attempt to silence him. 
He has as much right to speak his conviction as we ours. And 
not only so, it is his duty to do this. Suppression of thought 
leads to suppression of truth. Concealment of conviction be- 
comes an extinguisher of truth." {The Nonconformist, Dec. 
1852.) 

Such sentiments as these do more to sustain Christianity 
than the most fiery denunciations against Atheists and Athe- 
ism. The former proceed from the moral emotions, and are 
addressed to the same emotions in other men ; the latter flow 
from the animal propensities, which alone they evoke. 

In the same commendable spirit writes Dr James Buchanan, 
Divinity Professor in the Free Church College at Edinburgh, 
in his late work, entitled " Faith in God and Modern Atheism 

d 



XXX 



INTRODUCTION. 



compared, in their Essential Nature, Theoretic Grounds, and. 
Practical Influence ;" Edinburgh, 1855. He argues with the 
Atheists as if they were thinking beings, possibly lovers of 
truth ; and in contending with other classes of men to whose 
opinions he is more or less opposed, he writes with a like de- 
gree of candour and moderation. Though myself so unfortu- 
nate as to be one of the objects of his hostile criticism (see Ap- 
pendix, No. IX.), I have read with pleasure several passages in 
which the study of the laws of nature is strongly recommended 
by him. " It is not true/' says he, " that there is any real or 
necessary antagonism between the laws of nature and the pre- 
rogatives of God ; on the contrary, let our knowledge advance, 
until all the phenomena both of the Material and Moral worlds 
shall be reduced under so many general laws, even then Su- 
perstition might disappear, but Theology would remain, and 
would only receive fresh accessions of evidence and strength, 
in proportion as the wise order of nature is more fully un- 
folded, and its most hidden mysteries disclosed." (Yol. I., p. 
485.) Again : *' On the ground of analogy, we think it highly 
probable that every department of nature is subject to regular 
and stable laws ; and on the same ground we may anticipate 
that, in the progressive advance of human knowledge, many 
new fields will yet be conquered, and added to the domain of 
Science." (Vol. II., p. 194.) In regard to Phrenology, he ad- 
mits that it no more leads to materialism than do similar facts 
which everybody recognises (vol. II., pp. 73, 90-93); and that 
" the mere proof of the soul's being an immaterial substance 
would not necessarily infer its being also immortal." (Vol. II., 
p. 121.) 

To prevent misunderstanding, I beg here to explain the 
meaning which is attached in the following work to the expres- 
sions," Laws of Nature" and " Natural Laws." Every object 
and being in nature has received a definite constitution, and also 
powers of acting on other objects and beings. The action of the 
forces is so regular, that we describe them as operating under 
laws imposed on them by God ; but these words indicate mere- 
ly our perception of the regularity of the action. It is impos- 
sible for man to alter or break a natural law, when understood 
in this sense ; for the action of the forces and the effects they 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxi 



produce are placed beyond his control. But the observation of 
the action of the forces leads man to draw rules from it for the 
regulation of his own conduct, and these rules are called natural 
laws, because Nature dictates or prescribes them as guides to 
conduct. If we fail to attend to the operations of the natural 
forces, we may unknowingly act in opposition to them ; but as 
the action is inherent in the things, and does not vary with 
our state of knowledge, we must suffer from our ignorance and 
inattention. Or we may know the forces and the consequences 
which their action inevitably produces, but from ignorance 
that through them God is dictating to us rules of conduct ; or 
from mistaken notions of duty, from passion, self-couceit, or 
other causes, we may disregard them, and act in opposition to 
them : but the consequences will not be altered to suit our 
ignorant errors or humours ; we must obey or suffer. Further 
explanations on this subject are given on pages 97 and 208 of 
the present work. 

It is proper also to mention that many passages and ideas that 
have already appeared in my other works are here reproduced, 
not as new truths, but as the foundations of a new application 
of them. Only two alternatives were presented to me ; either to 
refer the reader to these passages scattered over several works 
(which would have broken all continuity of argument), or to 
reproduce them ; and I have adopted the latter as the more 
convenient course for the reader. 

Finally — The same propositions are frequently repeated in 
the different chapters of this work, and I wish to explain 
that this has been done intentionally ; because my object has 
been, if possible, to break up some old religious associations, 
in order to facilitate the introduction of new ideas ; and it- 
appeared to me that a single cold announcement of the new 
suggestions, however clear and logical, would have little effect 
in accomplishing this end. 



ON THE 



RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE 
AND RELIGION. 

The Reformation in the sixteenth century produced a power- 
ful effect on the European mind. The miracles, precepts, and 
sublime devotional effusions of the Old and New Testaments, 
excited, with deep intensity, the religious sentiments of the 
people, and introduced ardent discussions on temporal and 
eternal interests, which, unfortunately, were followed by fu- 
rious and desolating wars. Freedom on earth, and salvation 
in heaven or perdition in hell, were the mighty topics which 
then engaged public attention. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, a generation 
born and educated under these exciting influences, appeared 
upon the stage. The Reformation was then consummated, 
but the duty remained of acting it out in deeds. The new 
generation had read in the Books of the Old Testament of a 
people whose king was God ; whose national councils were 
guided by omniscience, and whose enterprises, whether in 
peace or war, were aided and accomplished by omnipotence 
employing means altogether apart from the ordinary course 
of nature. The New Testament presented records of a con- 
tinued exercise of similar supernatural powers ; and the great 
lesson taught in both seemed to that generation to be, that 
the power of God was exercised as a shield to protect, and an 
irresistible influence to lead to success and victory in secular 
affairs, those tvJw believed and worshipped aright, who em- 
braced cordially the doctrines revealed in the sacred volumes, 
who abjured all self-righteousness and self-reliance, and who 
threw themselves in perfect confidence and humility on Him 
as their King, protector, and avenger. 



2 



PRESENT STATE OF THE RELATION 



In the first half of the seventeenth century, the active 
members of society in England and Scotland embraced these 
views as principles not only of faith but of practice. With 
that profound earnestness of purpose which is inspired by sin- 
cere conviction of religious truth, they desired to realize in 
deeds what they professed as faith. As remarked by Thomas 
Carlyle, that generation " attempted to bring the Divine law 
of the Bible into actual practice in men's affairs on the earth." 
In the contests between Cromwell and the Covenanters, we 
observe both parties claiming to be " the people of God ;" 
both asserting that they were directed by Divine influence, 
and supported by Divine power, even when in hostile collision 
with each other. It is necessary only to read attentively 
Crom well's letters and speeches, and the contemporary nar- 
ratives of the Covenanters, to be satisfied of this fact. Each 
party ascribed its successes to the Divine approval of its con- 
duct and belief, and its calamities to displeasure with its un- 
belief or other sins. When Cromwell overthrew the Scotch, 
and " had the execution of them/' in other words, the slaughter 
of them, for many miles in the pursuit, he called it " a sweet 
mercy," vouchsafed to him by God, to whom he devoutly 
ascribed the glory. After mentioning his victory at Dunbar, 
the trophies of which were about " three thousand Scotch 
slain," " near ten thousand prisoners," " the whole baggage 
and train taken," with " all their artillery, great and small," 
he adds, "It is easy to see the Lord hath done this. It 
would do you good to see and hear our poor foot to go up and 
down making their boast of God."* 

The Covenanters held the same belief ; but, somewhat in- 
consistently, while they confessed that their own religious un- 
worthiness had brought upon them the Divine displeasure, 
they denied to Cromwell the right to interpret the victory as 
a manifestation of the Divine approval of his faith, principles, 
and practice : — They endeavoured to represent it as merely 
" an event ;" for which Cromwell rebukes them in the follow- 
ing words: — " You (the men of the Covenant) say that you 
have not so learned Christ ' as to hang the equity of your 
cause upon events.' We (for our part) could wish that blind- 
ness had not been cast upon your eyes to all those marvellous 
dispensations which God hath lately wrought in England. 
But did you not solemnly appeal (to God) and pray ? Did 
not we do so too ? And ought not you and we to think, with 
fear and trembling, of the hand of the great God in this 
mighty and strange appearance of His, instead of slightly 

* Letter XCIL, Cromwell to Lenthal, dated " Dunbar, 4th September 1650." (Car- 
lyle's Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 41.) 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



3 



calling it an 1 event ? ' Were not both your and onr expecta- 
tions renewed from time to time whilst we waited upon God, 
to see which way He would manifest himself upon our ap- 
peals ? And shall we, after all these our prayers, fastings, 
tears, expectations, and solemn appeals, call these bare 
' events ?' The Lord pity you." * 

While the people of that age entertained these views of the 
manner of God's administration of secular affairs, they were 
equally convinced of the supernatural agency of the devil, 
and with similar earnestness acted on this conviction. They 
ascribed their sins to Satanic influence on their minds, and at- 
tributed to the exercise of Satanic power many of the physi- 
cal evils under which they suffered. They imagined that this 
power was exercised by the devil through the instrumentality 
of human beings, and burned thousands of these supposed 
agents of the fiend, under the name of witches. This belief 
lingered among the Scotch people a century later. In Fe- 
bruary 1743 the " Associate Presbytery" of the Secession 
Church passed an " Act for renewing the National Covenant ;" 
and among other national sins which they confessed and vowed 
to renounce is mentioned, " The Kepeal of the Penal Statutes 
against Witchcraft, contrary to the express laws of God, and 
for which a holy God may be provoked, in a way of righteous 
judgment, to leave those who are already ensnared to be 
hardened more and more, and to permit Satan to tempt and 
seduce others to the same wicked and dangerous snare. " 

These were the views of God's providence entertained by 
the religious men of the seventeenth century. Those who 
were not penetrated by a deep sentiment of religion acted 
then, as the same class does now, on the views of the order 
of nature with which their own experience and observation, 
aided by those of others, had supplied them. They did not 
trouble themselves with much inquiry whether this order was 
systematic or incidental, moral, or irrespective of morality ; 
but acted as their views of expediency dictated at the moment. 
It is with the opinions of the religious and earnest men of 
that century that we are now principally engaged. 

In commenting on that period, Thomas Carlyle observes, 
in his own quaint style, that " the nobility and gentry of Eng- 
land were then a very strange body of men. The English 
squire of the seventeenth century clearly appears to have be- 
lieved in God, not as a figure of speech, but as a very fact, 
very awful to the heart of the English squire/' He adds, 

* Letter XCVIL, Cromwell to " The Governor of Edinburgh Castle." dated " Edin- 
burgh, 12th September 1650." Lib. cit., vol. ii. p. 65. 

A 2 



4 



PRESENT STATE OE THE RELATION 



" We have wandered far away from the ideas which guided 
us in that century, and, indeed, which had guided us in all 
preceding centuries ; but of which that century was the ulti- 
mate manifestation. We have wandered very far, and must 
endeavour to return and connect ourselves therewith again."* 
I ask, How shall we return ? This is a grave question, and 
the answer demands serious consideration. 

The grand characteristic of the Jewish dispensation, on 
which chiefly these views of the Divine government of the 
world were founded, was, that it w T as special and supernatural. 
In the seventeenth century the people possessed very little 
correct scientific knowledge of the elements, agencies, and 
laws of inorganic and organic nature. The Scriptures con- 
stituted almost the sole storehouse of deep reflection and pro- 
found emotion for that age ; and in the absence of scientific 
knowledge, they fell naturally into the belief that, as the Scrip- 
tures were given for guides to human conduct, the same 
scheme of Providence, physical and moral, which had pre- 
vailed in ancient times, must still continue in force. Their 
conviction on this point appears to have been profound and 
sincere, and they attempted to act it out in deeds. 

But was there no error of apprehension here ? Were they 
not mistaken in believing that the course of Providence was 
the same in their day as it is described to have been among 
the Jews in the times of the Scripture records ? A brief con- 
sideration of their actions, and the results of them, will per- 
haps throw some light on this question. 

They assumed that the supernatural agencies which Scrip- 
ture told them had been manifested under the Jewish dispen- 
sation might still be evoked, and would, in some form or other, 
be exerted for their guidance and support, if they appealed to 
God, and called for them in a right spirit. Hence, instead of 
studying and conforming to the laws of nature, they resorted 
to fastings, humiliations, praise, and prayers, as practical means 
not only of gaining battles and establishing political power, 
but of obtaining Divine direction in all the serious affairs of 
life. Their theology and their science, so far as they had any 
science, were in harmony. They did not recognize an esta- 
blished and regular order of nature as the means through 
which God governs the world, and to which He requires man 
to conform his conduct ; but regarded every element of physi- 
cal nature, and every faculty of the human mind, as under 
the administration of a special and supernatural providence. 



* Lib, cit., vol. i. pp. 3 and 87. 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



5 



They viewed God as wielding all these elements arbitrarily, 
according to His will ; and on that will they believed they could 
operate by religious faith and observances. In principle, their 
view of the nature of the Divine administration of the world 
was similar to that entertained by the Greeks and Eomans. 
Homer s priests and heroes offered supplications to the gods 
for direct interference in favour of their schemes, and their 
prayers are represented to have been occasionally successful 
in eliciting supernatural aid. Cromwell, and the men of his 
age, with more true and exalted conceptions of God, believed 
in His still administering the affairs of men, not by means of 
a regular order of causes and effects, but by direct exercises 
of special power. 

I should say that in this condition of mind they were inspired 
by pure and exalted religious emotions, but misled by great 
errors in theology. It was under the influence of such views 
of the Divine administration, that the existing standards of 
the Church of England, and of the Presbyterian Church of 
Scotland, were framed ; and hence perhaps arose the very 
meagre recognition of the order of God's providence in the 
course of nature, as religious truth, and as a system of prac- 
tical instruction for the guidance of human conduct, which 
characterizes them. 

After that age, however, the human understanding, by a 
profounder and more exact study of nature, obtained a dif- 
ferent view of the course of Providence in the administration 
of temporal affairs. Science revealed a system in which 
every object, animate and inanimate, appears to be endowed 
with peculiar qualities and agencies, which it preserves and 
exerts with undeviating regularity, as long as its circum- 
stances continue unchanged ; and in which each object is 
adapted, with wisdom and benevolence, to the others, and all 
to man. In the words of the Kev. Mr Sedgwick, science un- 
folded a fixed order of creation, so clear and intelligible that 
" we are justified in saying that, in the moral as in the phy- 
sical world, God seems to govern by general laws/' — " I am 
not now," says he, " contending for the doctrine of moral ne- 
cessity ; but I do affirm, that the moral government of God 
is by general laws, and that it is our bounden duty to study 
those laws, and, as far as we can, to turn them to account."* 

Here, then, an important revolution has been effected in the 
views of profound thinkers, in regard to the mode in which 
Providence administers this world. Science has banished 
from their minds belief in the exercise, by the Deity, in our 

* A Discourse on the Studies of the University (of Cambridge). By Adam Sedg- 
wick, M.A., &c, 3d edition. 



6 



PEE SENT STATE OF THE RELATION 



day, of special acts of supernatural power, as a means of influ- 
encing human affairs, and it has presented a systematic order 
of nature, which man may study, comprehend, and follow, as 
a guide to his practical conduct. In point of fact, the new 
faith has already partially taken the place of the old. In 
everything physical, men now act more on the belief that this 
world's administration is conducted on the principle of an 
established order of nature, in which objects and agencies are 
presented to man for his study, — are to some extent placed 
under his control, — and are wisely calculated to promote his 
instruction and enjoyment. Some individuals adopt the 
same view in regard even to moral affairs. The creed of the 
modern man of science is well expressed by Mr Sedgwick in 
the following words : — " If there be a superintending Pro- 
vidence, and if His will be manifested by general laws, ope- 
rating both on the physical and moral world, then must 
a violation of these laivs be a violation of His will, and be 
pregnant with inevitable misery. Nothing can, in the end, be 
expedient for man, except it be subordinate to those laws the 
Author of Nature has thought fit to impress on his moral and 
physical creation!' Other clergymen also embrace the same 
view. The Rev. Dr Thomas Guthrie, in his pamphlet, " A Plea 
for Ragged Schools," observes, that " They commit a grave 
mistake, who forget that injury as inevitably results from fly- 
ing in the face of a moral or mental, as of a physical law." 

This revolution in practical belief, however, is only partial ; 
and the great characteristic of the religious mind at the pre- 
sent clay is its aversion to the doctrine of an intelligible, 
moral, and practical system of government revealed by God to 
man in the order of nature for the guidance of his conduct, 
and that correct expositions of this system possess the cha- 
racter of religious truths. This unbelief in an intelligible and 
practically useful Divine government in nature affects our re- 
ligion, our literature, and our conduct. I put the following 
questions in all earnestness: — Are the fertility of the soil, the 
health of the body, the prosperity of individuals and of na- 
tions — in short, the great secular interests of mankind — now 
governed by special acts of supernatural power ? Science 
answers that they are not. Are they, then, governed by any 
regular and comprehensible natural laws ? If they are not, 
then is this world a theatre of anarchy, and consequently of 
atheism ; it is a world without the practical manifestation of 
a God. If, on the other hand, such laws exist as science pro- 
claims, they must be of Divine institution, and worthy of all 
reverence ; and I ask, In the standards of what church, from 
the pulpits of what sect, and in the schools of what deno- 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



7 



urination of Christians, are these laws taught to either the 
young or old as religious truths of Divine authority, and as 
practical guides for conduct in this world's affairs ? If we do 
not now live under a special supernatural government of the 
world, but under a government by natural laws, and if these 
laws are not studied, honoured, and obeyed as God's laws, are 
we not actually a nation without a religion in harmony with 
the true order of Providence, and therefore without a religion 
adapted to practical purposes ? 

The answer will probably be that this argument is infidelity ; 
but, with all deference, I reply that the denial of a regular, in- 
telligible, wisely adapted, and divinely appointed order of na- 
ture, as a guide to human conduct in this world, is practical 
atheism ; while the acknowledgment of the existence of such 
an order, accompanied by the nearly universal neglect of teach- 
ing and obeying its requirements, is real infidelity, disrespect- 
ful to God, and injurious to the best interests of man. We 
cannot consistently believe that God answers the prayers of 
the Mahommedans, Hindoos, Persians, and Chinese, for we 
deny the soundness of their faith ; nor that, as in the case of the 
ancient Jews, He exercises a special providence for their guid- 
ance to temporal prosperity, and for their consolation in afflic- 
tion and in the hour of death : and yet, if God really governs 
the world, his laws must apply to these nations as well as to 
ourselves. 

The churches which have at all recognised the order of na- 
ture, have attached to it a lower character than truly belongs to 
it. They do not recognise it as religious, i.e., as an administra- 
tion of Divine origin, deserving of reverential obedience. They 
have treated science and secular knowledge chiefly as objects of 
curiosity and sources of gain, and have given to actions intelli- 
gently founded on them the character of prudence. So humble 
has been their estimate of the importance of science, that they 
have not systematically called in the influence of the religious 
sentiments to hallow, elevate, and enforce the teachings of 
nature. In most of their schools the elucidation of the rela- 
tions of science to human conduct is omitted altogether, and 
catechisms of human invention usurp its place. 

Society, meantime, including the Calvinistic world itself, 
proceeds in its secular enterprises on the basis of natural 
science, so far as it has been able to discover it. If practical 
men send a ship to sea, they endeavour to render it staunch 
and strong, and to place in it an expert crew and an able 
commander, as conditions of safety, dictated by their convic- 
tion of the order of nature in flood and storm. If they are 
sick, they resort to a physician to restore them to health, 



8 



PRESENT STATE OF THE RELATION 



according to the ordinary laws of organization. If they 
suffer famine from wet seasons, they drain their lands ; and 
so forth. All these practices and observances are taught and 
enforced by men of science and the secular press, as measures 
of practical prudence ; but few churches recognise the order 
of nature on which they are founded, as an object of reverence, 
and a becoming subject of religious instruction. 

On the contrary, from the days of Galileo to the present 
time, religious professors have too often made war on science, 
on scientific teachers, and on the order of nature, and many 
of them still adhere, as far as the reason and light of the 
public mind will permit them, to their old doctrine of an 
inherent disorder reigning in the natural world. That dis- 
order prevails is undeniable ; but science proclaims that it is 
to a great extent owing to man's ignorance of his own nature, 
and that of the external world, and to his neglect of their 
relations. Many theologians do not recognise such views, 
but proceed as if human affairs were, somehow or other, still, 
in our day, influenced by special manifestations of Divine 
power. Mr Plumptre is reported, in the Times, to have said, in 
his place in Parliament, while discussing the famine in Ireland 
in 1846-7, through the failure of the potato crop, that " He 
did not mean to enter at large into the question where the guilt 
which had drawn down upon them this tremendous dispensa- 
tion lay, whether that guilt lay with the people or the rulers ; 
but he could not help expressing what he considered to be a 
well-founded opinion, that the rulers of this country had deep- 
ly offended, by some acts which they had recently placed on 
the statute-book, and which, in his belief, were calculated to 
bring down the Divine displeasure on the land ; but into this 
he would not enter." 

It is conjectured that this Honourable Gentleman had in 
view the grant to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, 
or the repeal of the corn-laws, as the " act" which, in his 
opinion, was calculated to bring down the Divine displeasure 
on the land. Be the acts what they may, the speech implied 
that, in his opinion, sin in the people, or in their rulers, had 
led to a special deflection of physical nature from the ordinary 
course, in order to produce a famine, for the punishment, not 
of the special offenders, but of men, women, and children pro- 
miscuously, many of whom had no control over the transac- 
tions. These notions would be unworthy of notice, except 
that they are still embraced as religion by large numbers of 
our people. In the olden time, eclipses were viewed as por- 
tentous announcements of Heaven's wrath against the sins 
of men ; but the discovery of unswerving physical laws, by 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



9 



which the motions of the heavenly bodies are regulated, and 
in virtue of which the certain occurrence of eclipses can be 
predicted, has expunged that superstition from the civilized 
mind. Nevertheless the same blind love of the wonderful 
and mysterious, which led our ancestors to quail before a 
natural and normal obscuration of the sun, leads the unen- 
lightened mind in our day to see in sin the causes of such vi- 
sitations as cholera and agricultural blights, instead of look- 
ing for them in physical conditions presented to our under- 
standings as problems to be solved, and to be then turned to 
account in avoiding future evils. Examples are frequently 
occurring of this conflict between the views of men who ac- 
knowledge a practical natural Providence, and those who do 
not. 

Archbishop Whately, in his " Address to the Clergy and 
other Members of the Established Church on the use and 
abuse of the present occasion" (the famine in Ireland in 
1846-47), says— 

" But advantage lias been taken of the existing calamity to inculcate, 
with a view to the conversion of persons whom I believe to be in error, doc- 
trines which I cannot but think utterly unsound, and of dangerous tendency, 
by arguments which will not stand the test of calm and rational examina- 
tion. There are some who represent the present famine (as indeed they 
did the cholera some years back) as a Divine judgment sent for the punish- 
ment of what they designate as national sins, especially the degree of tolera- 
tion and favour shewn to the members of the Church of Rome. Now this 
procedure, the attributing to such and such causes the supposed Divine 
wrath, is likely, when those of a different creed from our own are thus ad- 
dressed, to be by some of them rejected as profane presumption, and by 
others retorted. When once men begin to take upon them the office of in- 
spired prophets, and to pronounce boldly what are the counsels of the Most 
High, it is as easy to do this on the one side as on the other. Roman Ca- 
tholics who are told that a pestilence or a famine are sent as judgments on 
the land for the toleration of Romanism, may contend that, on the con- 
trary, it is the Protestantism that is the national sin. And without the evi- 
dence of a sensible miracle to appeal to, neither party can expect to con- 
vince the other. 

" When Israel was afflicted with a famine, in the days of Elijah, on 
account of the idolatry of those of the people who had offended the Lord by 
worshipping Baal, the idolaters might have contended that the judgment 
was sent by Baal against the worshippers of Jehovah, had not the prophet 
expressly denounced that judgment beforehand, and foretold both the com- 
mencement, and afterwards the termination, of the drought, besides calling 
down the fire from heaven upon the altar. This it is that enables us to 
pronounce that that famine was a Divine judgment sent for the sin of 
Israel, and for ivhat sin. And it is the same with the many similar cases 
that are recorded in Scripture. That Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed 
on account of their abominable wickedness we know, because Scripture tells 
us so. And that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for tempting the 
Spirit of God we know, and all present knew, because the Apostle Peter 
announced beforehand their fate, and declared the crime which called it 



10 



PRESENT STATE OF THE RELATION 



down. But for any uninspired man to take upon him to make similar de- 
clarations respecting any one of his neighbours who may die suddenly, or 
concerning any city that may be destroyed by a volcano or an earthquake, 
is as irrational and presumptuous as it is uncharitable and unchristian." 

Another example is presented by a letter addressed by Lord 
Palmers ton, as Home Secretary, to the Presbytery of Edin- 
burgh, in answer to their inquiry whether he intended to ad- 
vise the Queen to order a day of fasting, humiliation, and 
prayer, to be held in Scotland, in order to supplicate Divine 
Providence to stay the cholera which afflicted the people in 
1854 :— 

" The Maker of the universe has established certain laws of nature for 
the planet in which we live, and the weal or woe of mankind depends upon 
the observance or the neglect of those laws. One of those laws connects 
health with the absence of those gaseous exhalations which proceed from 
over-crowded human beings, or from decomposing substances, whether 
animal or vegetable ; and those same laws render sickness the almost in- 
evitable consequence of exposure to those noxious influences. But it has at 
the same time pleased Providence to place it within the power of man to 
make such arrangements as will prevent or disperse such exhalations, so as 
to render them harmless ; and it is the duty of man to atten d to those laws 
of nature, and to exert the faculties which Providence has thus given to man 
for his own welfare. 

" The recent visitation of cholera, which has for the moment been mer- 
cifully checked, is an awful warning given to the people of this realm, that 
they have too much neglected their duty in this respect, and that those per- 
sons with whom it rested to purify towns and cities, and to prevent or re- 
move the causes of disease, have not been sufficiently active in regard to 
such matters. Lord Palmerston would, therefore, suggest that the best 
course which the people of this country can pursue to deserve that the fur- 
ther progress of the cholera should be stayed, will be to employ the interval 
that will elapse between the present time and the beginning of next spring 
in planning and executing measures by which those portions of their towns 
and cities which are inhabited by the poorest classes, and which, from the 
nature of things, must most need purification and improvement, may be 
freed from those causes and sources of contagion, which, if allowed to re- 
main, will infallibly breed pestilence, and be fruitful in death, in spite of 
all the prayers and fastings of a united but inactive nation. When man 
has done his utmost for his own safety, then is the time to invoke the bless- 
ing of Heaven to give effect to his exertions." 

The majority of the Presbytery expressed great dissatisfac- 
tion with this communication, and refused to acknowledge 
that cleansing the town would be a becoming substitute for a 
day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, as a means of averting 
cholera. The civic rulers of Edinburgh, however, acted on it, 
and with very beneficial effects ; for the disease fell far more 
lightly on the city on this occasion than at the previous vi- 
sitation in 1831. 

It is impossible that the public mind can advance in sound 
and self -consistent practical principles "of action in this world's 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



11 



affairs, while conflicting views of science, religion, and the 
conrse of God's Providence, are poured forth from the pulpit 
and the press ; and it is equally impossible that the youthful 
mind can be trained to study, reverence, and conform to the 
course of God's Providence, while that Providence is treated 
with so little consideration by those who assume the cha- 
racter of accredited expositors of the Divine will. 

The questions, then, Whether there be an intelligible course 
of nature revealed to the human understanding, whether it 
should be taught to the young, and whether the religious sen- 
timents should be trained to venerate and conform to it as of 
Divine institution ? are not barren speculations respecting 
dogmas and doctrines. They touch a highly momentous prac- 
tical principle. While an impassable gulph stands between the 
views of God's Providence on which society in its daily busi- 
ness acts, and the religious faith which it professes to hold, the 
influence of the latter on social conduct must necessarily be 
feeble and limited. It is a matter of great importance to have 
the principles of action and of belief brought into harmony. 
Nothing can retard the moral and intellectual advancement 
of the people more thoroughly than having a theology for 
churches and Sundays, and a widely different code of prin- 
ciples for everyday conduct ; and yet this is, and must continue 
to be, the case with all the Christian nations, while they fail 
to recognise and to study the order of Providence in nature 
as a divinely appointed guide to human action. 

A second Keformation in religion is imperatively called for, 
and is preparing. The devout teacher will recognise man 
and the natural world as constituted by Divine benevolence 
and wisdom, and adapted to each other for man's instruc- 
tion and benefit. He will communicate to the young a 
knowledge of that constitution and its adaptations, as the 
basis of their religious faith and practice in reference to this 
world. Until this change shall have been accomplished, re- 
ligion will never exert its due influence over human affairs. 

Thomas Carlyle, in treating of the opinions of the seven- 
teenth century, observes, that " the Christian doctrines which 
then dwelt alive in every heart, have now in a manner died 
out of all hearts, — very mournful to behold ; and are not the 
guidance of this world any more" Dr Chalmers also says : — 
" As things stand at present, our creeds and confessions have 
become effete, and the Bible a dead letter ; and that ortho- 
doxy which was at one time the glory, by withering into the 
inert and lifeless, is now the shame and reproach of all our 
churches." Again : " There must be a most deplorable want 
amongst us of ' the light shining before men/ when, in- 



12 



PRESENT STATE OF THE RELATION 



stead of glorifying our cause, they (men like Thomas Car- 
lyle) can speak, and with a truth the most humiliating, of 
our inert and unproductive orthodoxy." Though in some re- 
spects erroneous, this representation is literally true in the 
sense in which I have explained the fact. It is chiefly in re- 
gard to the continuation of the special supernatural agency 
of God in this world, that the belief of the seventeenth cen- 
tury has practically gone out. It has not been abandoned in 
direct terms ; on the contrary, it is retained in the standards 
and instructions of the churches, and is embraced, or at- 
tempted to be embraced, by many individuals : but, in point 
of fact, it is no longer felt to be a reality by modern en- 
lightened Christians. 

" Nay, worse still/' continues Mr Carlyle, " the cant of them 
does yet divell alive ivith us ; little doubting that it is cant." 
With the ignorant, it is not cant, but a sincere, although a 
sadly confused belief. The strong-minded and well-informed 
men who have abandoned the ancient faith, are wrong in sup- 
posing that it is cant in their weaker brethren. They are 
themselves to blame for not honestly disabusing them, and in- 
forming them that the belief of the seventeenth century was, 
in this particular, a mistake, and that it no longer constitutes 
a practical rule of action. Mr Carlyle proceeds: " In tohich 
fatal intermediate state, the eternal sacredness of this universe 
itself, of this human life itself, has fallen dark to the most of 
us" This is lamentably true. The religious sentiments are 
not permitted practically to recognise the mode of God's ad- 
ministration in the ordinary course of nature, as revealing his 
laws for the guidance of human conduct. We really are in 
the intermediate state here described. The old belief has 
partially died away ; and our churches scowl upon the new 
belief, which perhaps may help to restore " the eternal sa- 
credness of this universe itself, and of this human life itself." 

In Germany, which led the way in the first Keformation, 
the same truth has forced itself on the attention of religious 
men. Dr Tholuck, professor of theology in the university of 
Halle, who is well known in this country as a distinguished 
evangelical Protestant divine, remarks : — 

" We live in an age when mankind is particularly rich in means to render 
the elements and nature subservient to their will. We live in a time when 
the individual becomes every day more independent of restraining power ; 
and if in the same measure in which this might, and dominion, and rich- 
ness in means, increases, the fear of God, and the consciousness of depen- 
dence on him, decreases more and more ; when all these gifts and all these 
means, instead of being used in the service of God, and of his kingdom, are 
used in the service of selfishness and our own enjoyment ; when man, 



BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



13 



through this dominion, "becomes day after day more free from earthly re- 
straints, but each day more and more a slave to his earthly passions ; when 
blinded man builds altars, and sings praises to his own skill and wit, instead 
of to his Heavenly Father, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift 
— oh! have not even the ancients foretold, what must become of such a 
generation in that wonderful fable of the daring of Prometheus, who, with 
violent hands stole from heaven its vivifying fire ? What we here speak 
of is no anxious dream, no unreal imagination ; no ! undeniable is the ex- 
isting tendency in this generation, to consecrate the temple which our pious 
forefathers reared to their Father in heaven, to man, the fleeting son of 
an hour."* 

Who is to blame for this forgetfulness of G-od by the cul- 
tivators of science, but the churches that have omitted to teach 
the sacred character of Nature, and to acknowledge her in- 
struction as Divine ? 

To those whose understandings have embraced the views 
which I am now advancing, and whose religious sentiments 
have been interwoven with them, " this eternal sacredness" 
stands forth in all the beauty, brightness, and intensity, which 
it ever possessed in the minds of the men of the seventeenth 
century. Mr Carlyle adds : " We think that too," (viz. the 
" sacredness of the universe/') " cant and a creed." Yes — 
men of science, whose religious sentiments have never been 
led to recognise the Divine adaptations in nature as procla- 
mations of the Divine will and attributes, but who have par- 
sued their investigations from intellectual or interested mo- 
tives alone, do regard the views which I am now advocating 
as " cant and a creed." To such individuals I can only say 
that the religious sentiments exist in man ; that the expe- 
rience of all ages shews that in youth they may be directed to 
almost any object, and will thereafter cling to it as sacred 
throughout life ; and the question is — Whether their legiti- 
mate direction is exclusively to dogmas and formulas of be- 
lief in reference mainly to another world, framed by fallible 
men in the dark ages as true interpretations of Scripture ; 
or also towards that revelation which is addressed by the 
great Euler of the universe to man in nature, and adapted to 
promote his improvement and enjoyment ? 

If we can persuade the people that the course of nature, 
which determines their condition at every moment of their 
lives, "is the design — law — command — instruction (any word 
will do), of an all-powerful though unseen Euler, it will be- 
come a religion with them ; obedience will be felt as a wish 
and a duty, an interest and a necessity." The friend from 
whose letter I quote these w T ords adds : " But can you per- 

* A Selection from the University Sermons of Augustus Tholuck, D.D., &c, p. 181. 
London, Seeley, 1844. 



14 RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 

suade mankind thus ? I mean, can you give them a practical 
conviction f I answer : In the present unsatisfactory condi- 
tion of things, the experiment is at least worth the trying. 
Whatever objections may exist to this proposal, something 
is needed to reconcile religion and science ; for, as Mr Car- 
lyle remarks, " the old names suggest new things to us— 
not august and divine, hut hypocritical, pitiable, and detest- 
able. The old names and similitudes of belief still circulate 
from tongue to tongue, though now in such a ghastly condi- 
tion : not as commandments of the living God, which we must 
do or perish eternally ; alas, no, as something very different 
from that." 



THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 15 



OHAPTEE II. 

DEFINITION OF THE WORDS SCIENCE AND RELIGION, AND ELUCIDA- 
TIONS OF THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION. 

In an enquiry into the relation between science and religion, 
it is necessary to define what is meant by these terms. By 
science, then, I understand a systematic exposition of cor- 
rectly observed facts concerning the constitution, qualities, 
modes of action, and relations of the objects of nature. 

It is unnecessary to enlarge on the definition of science ; 
but, as much obscurity exists with respect to the nature and 
objects of religion, it may be useful to enter more fully into an 
elucidation of this subject. 

It is generally acknowledged that there is a distinction be- 
tween the emotional and intellectual faculties of men, but the 
mind being considered by many persons as a single power, 
the distinction is, in their view, one of nomenclature merely. 
Phrenological observations lead to a different view. 

There is in the brain an organ for each primitive emotion, 
and one for each primitive intellectual faculty. And not only 
are these organs distinct from each other in space, but the 
natural vigour of each emotion, and of each intellectual power, 
depends on the size and condition of its organ. 

Keligion is not a product of intellect alone. No kind, 
quantity, or quality, of intellectual conceptions, will gene- 
rate religious emotions. On the other hand, the religious emo- 
tions which prompt us to reverence and adore, cannot reach 
definite objects without the aid of the intellectual powers. 
These objects, also, may be physical or mental. Entwine the 
reverential emotions from infancy with the statue of Jupiter, 
and it will become a religious object: connect them with 
dogmas and articles of faith, and these will be reverenced as 
religious truths. 

The kind of intellectual conceptions with which the religious 
emotions may be associated, will depend upon the strength 
and cultivation of both of these orders of faculties. If the re- 
ligious organs be naturally very large and much exercised, and 
those of the intellect feeble and undisciplined, the emotions 



16 



THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 



may be trained to invest almost any objects with the attribute 
of holiness and to regard them with reverence. For example, 
in ancient Egypt, reptiles and birds were objects of religious 
veneration. In Hindostan, Juggernaut is worshipped ; in 
Greece and Eome, Jupiter and Apollo, Juno, Venus, and 
Diana, and many other imaginary beings, were adored as 
deities. In these countries, the religious emotions were 
trained from infancy to reverence the statues of these ima- 
ginary personages as worthy of religious homage. 

The intellectual faculties not only perceive the external ob- 
jects represented as sacred, but receive the instruction con- 
cerning their qualities, which the religious teachers of the 
people choose to communicate ; and the combination of the 
religious emotions with these ideas constitutes the religion of 
the various worshippers. When the silversmiths of Ephesus 
shouted, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians \" it is insinuated 
that they knew that she was only an idol, and affected reve- 
rence for her merely for the sake of gain, because they made 
shrines for her temple. If this surmise be correct, their in- 
tellects were so far enlightened that the association between 
their religious emotions and her statue and temple was dis- 
solved ; she was no longer an object of reverence to them ; 
but at the same time they knew that this connection still 
subsisted in the minds of the people, and they relied on the 
strength and sincerity of the popular belief as the means of 
exciting opposition to the apostle. 

When, on the other hand, the intellectual organs are power- 
ful and well cultivated, and those of the religious emotions 
feeble and little exercised, the individual will, with great dif- 
ficulty, attain a strong living religious character. He may 
try to believe dogmas, perform ceremonies, and conform to 
observances ; but he will feel, and penetrating observers will 
discover, that the unction of piety is not a powerful element 
in his mental constitution. 

Keligion, in the common acceptation of the term, means a 
system of divine faith and worship, and thus used it expresses 
only external objects. In the present treatise, I consider it 
as a mental state, made up of certain emotions and intellec- 
tual conceptions. In this subjective sense, these two are 
necessary to constitute religion. 

As this proposition is a fundamental one in the discussions 
on which we are about to enter, and as it will j)robably be 
new to some readers, a few illustrations of it may be useful. 
In the following instances objects possessing in themselves no 
sacred qualities, are invested with such a character by be- 
coming associated with the religious emotions. 



THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 17 

In England, for example, grave-yards and chnrches are con- 
secrated, and in Scotland they are not. What constitutes 
consecration ? A Bishop performs certain ceremonies, reads 
certain prayers, and declares the ground holy and set apart to 
receive the bodies of believers, there to rest till the resurrec- 
tion. In like manner he declares the church to be sacred, 
and dedicates it to the worship of Cod. In England, the re- 
ligious emotions are, from infancy, entwined with these cere- 
monies and objects ; and in the mind of the thoroughbred- 
Church of England Christian, in whom the religious organs 
are large and active, these places actually become sacred. He 
shudders at the idea of being buried in unconsecrated ground, 
and is shocked at the proposal to transact secular business in 
a church. If there were a naturally sacred character in the 
burial-ground and church, consecration would be unnecessary; 
and as it is incredible that the ceremonies change their nature, 
the change can occur only in the minds of the people. How 
are these acts viewed by the staunch Scotch Presbyterian, — one 
trained from infancy to venerate Calvin and John Knox, the 
Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and 
his own church-ceremonies, and taught, moreover, that Epis- 
copalians and Bishops persecuted his ancestors to death, and 
still profess a religion closely allied to that of the Church of 
Eome ? To such a person, the ceremonies of consecration 
appear as unmeaning and unreal as the incantations of the 
witches in Macbeth ; the grave-yard appears to him merely 
a piece of ground, and the church four walls and a roof ; and 
he regards the sacred or holy character in which these appear 
to the Englishman as a superstitious fancy ! And why does he 
do so ? Because he views them through his intellect alone,, 
which experiences no emotions ; while, from infancy, feelings 
of hatred have been associated in his mind with the Episco- 
palian doctrines and ritual. 

With the sound Scotch Presbyterian no edifice is sacred. 
In Edinburgh, a theatre was long used on week days for the 
drama, and on Sundays as a church. The English Church- 
man would have revolted at this practice. A congregation of 
the Free Church of Scotland worshipped in a music-hall ; and 
in the new cemeteries, a portion of the ground is consecrated 
for the burial of Episcopalians, and the remainder is uncon- 
secrated for Presbyterian use. A line on the ground-plan 
or a walk in the grave-yard distinguishes the parts, but no de- 
marcation indicative of difference of character is discernible. 

During the agitation for repeal of the corn law, a deputa- 
tion of English Repealers visited Scotland. A meeting was 
advertised to be held in the county-hall in a provincial town 

B 



18 THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 

but it was found too small, and the meeting adjourned to a large 
Dissenting chapel close at hand. One of the English leaders, 
in whom the organs of the religious emotions were large, and 
who had been, trained to reverence churches and chapels as 
sacred edifices, was prepared to deliver a regular secular 
speech adapted to a popular audience in the county-hall ; 
but he told me that the moment the adjournment to a chapel 
was announced, the intended tone of his speech appeared to 
him in utter discord with the sacredness of the place ; and 
although he was informed that the chapel was not consecrat- 
ed, that it was often used for public meetings, and was re- 
garded merely as a secular edifice ; and although his intel- 
lect recognised the truth of these assurances ; his religious 
emotions could not be subdued, and his speech was grave 
and solemn, and very unlike that which he had intended to 
deliver. 

I have occasionally heard irreverent remarks made by ear- 
nest uncompromising Presbyterians on the Episcopalian ob- 
servances of Christmas Day and Grood Friday ; while some 
English visitors to Scotland have expressed their astonish- 
ment at the superstitious solemnity with which certain days, 
destitute of all scriptural sanctity, — namely, the Fast days pre- 
ceding the administration of the sacrament,— are there ob- 
served as holy. 

The name given to the intellectual ideas which enter into 
the composition of religion is Theology. It means the no- 
tions which we form concerning the Being to whom, or the 
objects to which, our reverential and devotional emotions 
should be directed. 

" Lo the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind." 

This is the theology of the Indian. The Hindoos and Ma- 
hommedans have embodied their theology — in other words, 
their notions concerning the objects to be reverenced and 
worshipped — in books. The emotional faculties of the people 
being trained to reverence, as Divine revelations, the narra- 
tives and dogmas which these books contain, the compound 
becomes in their minds religion. Hence, an individual may 
be highly religious, and know nothing of theology beyond 
the narratives and dogmas which have been entwined with 
his religious emotions from his infancy ; while another may 
be a profound theologian, acquainted with the original lan- 
guages of Scripture, skilled in all the controversies which 
have taken place concerning the authors by whom its dif- 



THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 19 

ferent parts were written, the time and order of their ap- 
pearance, their title to the attribute of inspiration, and the 
true meaning of their texts, yet not be religious. In point 
of fact, experience shows that, in many instances, the more 
an individual knows of these subjects, the less religious, in 
the common acceptation of the word, he becomes — i.e., his 
reverence for the special dogmas and observances, which in 
his youth he was trained to regard with religious awe, dimi- 
nishes. 

The difference between religion and theology, which I have 
here endeavoured to indicate, may be farther illustrated by 
comparing them to the warp and woof of a web. The weaver 
fixes in his loom, first, long threads stretching out directly 
from his own position, and these are called the warp. Then 
he puts thread upon a shuttle, which he ever and anon casts 
between the long threads, and these cross threads are called 
the woof. The web or cloth is composed of the two series of 
threads closely pressed together. Now, in our present prob- 
lem, the native sentiment of reverence and devotion may be 
likened to the warp. It is the foundation or first element of 
the web. The theological ideas may be considered as the 
cross thread or woof. As the shuttle adds the woof to the 
warp to make the cloth, the intellect adds theology, or par- 
ticular notions about God, to the emotion, and the two com- 
bined constitute what we commonly call religion. The Hin- 
doo religion is the primitive pure emotion, with such intellec- 
tual ideas as the priests of the country have been able to 
weave into it. The Mahommedan and Christian religions may 
be described in similar terms ; and thus it is that the compo- 
site web of reverential emotion and intellectual ideas which 
each nation has formed for itself, is called its religion. The 
compound nature of this web is not usually perceived by its 
votaries. The Hindoo regards his sacred web as altogether 
pure religion ; and the Mahommedan, and the Christian, of 
whatever sect, do the same. 

The primitive emotion, when energetic and excited, is so 
overpowering, that it carries the whole mind captive. When 
it acts blindly, it dethrones reason, stifles conscience, and en- 
lists every passion to vindicate the honour and glory of the 
Being whom it has been trained to reverence. When the 
woof of error has been added in infancy, and the web of su- 
perstition formed, every thread — that is to say, every notion 
concerning God, and his priests, and man's duty to both — be- 
comes sacred in the eyes of the devotee, and stirs the emotion 
into a glow of rapture if gratified, and of pain, accompanied 
by indignation and fury, if offended. In this state of mind, 

b 2 



20 THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 

barbarous nations plunder and slay in honour and to the glory 
of their gods. 

In Christian nations, analogous phenomena appear. We 
all profess to draw our religion from the Bible ; but in Scot- 
land, one woof is woven into the warp, in England another, 
in Ireland a third, in Germany a fourth, in Eussia a fifth, and 
so on. In Scotland, my own country, the woof consists of 
certain views of God, of human nature, and of man's state, 
duties, and destiny, embodied in the Shorter Catechism and 
the Confession of Faith. In our infancy these are woven by 
our parents and clergy into the very core of our religious 
emotion, and the resulting texture is our religion. The 
union is so intimate, and the web so firmly knit together, that 
most of us have no conception of anything being religion ex- 
cept this our own compound web of devotion and intellectual 
doctrine. The doctrine is to us as sacred as the emotion, and 
he who controverts it is regarded as the enemy of our religion. 
In barbarous ages, Christian men, acting under this impres- 
sion, burned individuals who controverted their interpreta- 
tions of Scripture; and in our own day, they calumniate them 
as Infidels, and obstruct their social advancement. Never- 
theless, the doctrine which they thus regard as unquestion- 
ably Divine is a mere human woof composed of inferences 
drawn from particular texts of Scripture, by mortal men as- 
sembled at Westminster in the 17th century ; men fallible 
like ourselves, and many of them more ignorant ; though its 
intimate union with our devotional emotion is apt to incapa- 
citate our mind from so regarding it. 

We obtain direct and irresistible proof that such is the fact, 
by merely crossing the Border, or St George's Channel. In 
England, the woof is composed of the Liturgy and the Epis- 
copalian Catechism. The Englishman, into whose devotional 
emotion the doctrines of these books have been woven from 
infancy, cannot conceive of anything but his own web of opi- 
nion being the true religion. If ignorant and prejudiced, he 
regards the Scottish Theology with indifference, aversion, or 
contempt ; and in a similar state of mind, the Scotsman re- 
pays his contumely by treating English Theology in a corre- 
sponding spirit. When enlightened, although they differ in 
opinion, they regard each other with respect. Cross the 
Channel, again, to Catholic Ireland, and there you find that 
the Pope and Councils have fashioned other standards of faith, 
and that the priests have woven them into the warp of the 
Irish mind, and this web constitutes its religion. 

Nay, the clergy of different sects have woven notions about 
church government and ceremonies into the warp, and made 



THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 21 

these also appear portions of religion ; and men fight for and 
defend them with as much zeal as if they were attributes of 
God. 

We can now understand why it is that we are afflicted with 
such deadly strifes and hatred in the name of religion. " The 
clouds that intercept the heavens from us, come not from the 
heavens, but from the earth." The thing we call religion is a 
compound web; and when our neighbour shows us his threads of 
religious opinion, and calls them Divine, we, into whose minds 
they have not been woven, survey his fabric with the eye of 
reason, and pronounce it to be partly pure and partly spu- 
rious. Our neighbours devotional feeling receives a rude 
shock ; he becomes angry, and attacks our web of religion in 
his ton, and treats it in a similar way. Neither of us, in ge- 
neral, is capable of examining closely and calmly the threads 
that constitute the woof of his own web, and hence discord 
between religious parties is interminable. 

In the prevalent creeds, nature is not recognised as sacred ; 
no dogmas are founded on scientific truth and systematically 
combined with the religious emotions, so as to invest them 
with a religious character. This appears to be the true cause 
why no practical natural religion exists, and why none can be 
formed until we venture on a new religious Keformation. 
It explains also why " the eternal sacredness of this uni- 
verse itself, of this human life itself, has fallen dark to the 
most of us." Meanwhile, the union between the religious 
emotions and the prevalent dogmas, being cemented by no 
natural bond, is in constant danger of dislocation, either by 
forcible and confident appeals made by other pretending au- 
thorities to the religious emotions themselves, as in the case 
of Mormonism, or by the teachings of science rendering it 
impossible for the intellect to recognise the truth of the esta- 
blished doctrines. The absence of a rational foundation for 
their faith was recently shown by the prevalence, even among 
the educated classes, of belief in spirit-rapping and table- 
turning. Professing to believe in the sublime doctrines of 
heaven and hell, and some of them in that of purgatory, they 
actually embraced the notion, and earnestly acted on it, that 
the spirits of the dead could be evoked from those awful 
abodes, and induced to answer the most trumpery questions 
by the invocation of practitioners who made gain of the po- 
pular credulity. The same class of persons possessed so little 
knowledge of the laws of physical nature, and so little reve- 
rence for the power and wisdom of Him who established them, 
that they indulged in the wildest dreams of tables being 
moved and made to perform wonderful evolutions by mys- 



22 THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF RELIGION ELUCIDATED. 

terious influences, in contradiction to the order of nature re- 
vealed by previous knowledge and experience. 

Is the human mind to continue for ever having its religion 
stamped upon it, like a pattern on potters' clay, and to retain 
and act upon it through life, irrespective altogether of a foun- 
dation in nature ? And can religions that repudiate, or at 
least neglect nature, and rest chiefly on human interpreta- 
tions, formed in dark and unscientific ages, of sacred books, be 
calculated to promote the civilization of man amidst the blaze 
of light and reason which are every hour revealing the im- 
perfections of the popular notions, and their conflict with the 
works and will of the Almighty ? Let us not shrink from 
answering these questions, but boldly, yet humbly, inquire 
into the resources afforded by the present state of knowledge 
for improving our religious systems. 

To attain this object, it appears necessary to inquire whether 
science affords a foundation for a natural theology and a na- 
tural religion ? To answer this question, we must consider, 
1st, The natural evidence for the existence of a Supreme Being; 
2dli/, Whether we can trace Divine government in the pheno- 
mena of the physical and moral departments of the world ? 
3c%, If such government be discernible, by what means it is 
maintained and rendered efficient ? Mlily, "Whether specific 
duties are revealed and prescribed to man by this government, 
and what these are ? — The answers to these questions will 
constitute our natural theology ; — and, lastly , Whether by en- 
twining with the religious emotions the views of God, of His 
government, and of the duties which He prescribes, Ave shall 
be able to confer a religious character on these truths, and 
thus constitute a natural religion ? If we succeed in those 
objects, we shall render science sacred, invest the practical 
duties of life with a religious character, and produce a faith 
calculated to expand and purify itself by every advance in the 
discovery of truth, and to reinforce, by all the power and fer- 
vour of our highest emotions, the progress of mankind to- 
wards the utmost degree of improvement and happiness which 
their nature is fitted to attain. 

Before, however, entering on the consideration of these 
subjects, it may be useful to enquire into the extent of our 
knowledge of man himself, and of his capacities for disco- 
vering and comprehending scientific answers to these ques- 
tions. This, therefore, shall be our next object. 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



23 



CHAPTEB III. 
OF MAN. 

SECTION I. — OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 

The human body is an organised compound substance, but its 
known elements belong to the inorganic kingdom. All its 
parts are formed from the blood, and the blood consists of two 
ingredients — flbrine and serum. Fibrine is identical in its 
composition with muscular fibre, and serum with white of egg. 
These two substances contain ten chemical elements: namely, 
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous, sulphur, 
chlorine, potash, soda, and lime. Iron and certain fatty sub- 
stances also are found in the blood. 

At present, the primitive organic form is considered to be a 
cell. The tissues which enter into the structure of complex 
organs are regarded only as the means for supplying the con- 
ditions requisite for the vital operations of the cells. Differ- 
ent cells have different properties ; one set of cells, for exam- 
ple, separates certain elements from the blood and forms bones, 
another set forms nerves. The cause of the formation of the 
cell, and of different cells possessing different properties, is 
unknown. Many physiologists name it the vital force, and 
regard it as the source of growth and reproduction. Several of 
the conditions under which cells develope themselves into 
complex organs are known ; but it is unascertained whether 
their evolutions are the result merely of properties possessed 
by matter in its inorganic form, or of matter and some new 
force added to it. It has not been proved that inorganic mat- 
ter can become organised simply by the powers known to be 
inherent in itself. Organic substances and beings exist, and 
possess the power of absorbing and converting inorganic 
matter into organic ; but science has not revealed how the 
first of them became organic, and whence they derived this 
power of assimilation. Suffice it, therefore, here to observe, that 
out of inorganic elements, cells and various tissues are formed. 
These, in the progress of growth, are developed into specific 
organs, such as the bones, muscles, nerves, lungs, and so forth, 
each having a peculiar function. The action of the elements 



24 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



out of which these cells, tissues, and organs are formed is 
precise and uniform ; and the compound organism, called 
the human body, appears as evidently to be a result of 
design as a clock, a steam-engine, or any other mechanical 
production of human skill, only immeasurably transcending, 
in the offices which it performs, and in the admirable con- 
trivances by which these are accomplished, every combination 
by mortal skill. The following arguments in favour of a vi- 
tal principle have frequently been used. 

It is said, for example, that, strictly speaking, the elements 
before named are only the chemical residuum after the vital 
power has ceased to act ; but it does not necessarily follow 
that these, in the same forms and proportions in which they 
are found after death, constitute all that enters into the com- 
position of the body while alive. The vital force may be 
some element still unknown, which combines with them and 
forms a new compound, but which escaping at death leaves 
these elements as a mere residuum. Water, the steam of wa- 
ter with its prodigiously expansive power, and ice, are all com- 
posed of oxygen and hydrogen ; but their characteristics are 
widely different, according to the amount of heat which they 
contain ; and heat is still an unknown force or action, for it is 
not now regarded as a substance. In like manner, be the 
vital principle what it may, we must constantly bear in mind 
that a living man may consist of substances different from 
every thing we know chemically, and different from the ele- 
ments present in his body in a state of death : in the actual 
condition of science, the difficulty of ascertaining what he really 
is, seems insuperable; for we cannot discover it from conscious- 
ness, and chemical analysis of the body is impossible without 
killing it. Blood, when drawn from the body, dies, and so do 
all other parts when separated from the living organism. 

Another theory of life dispenses altogether with a vital 
principle as a force distinct from matter. According to it, 
there is no evidence to prove the existence of any particular 
vital principle, but life may be referred to a more complicated 
action of the common properties of matter than we see in in- 
organic substances. When carbon and oxygen, for instance, 
are brought together under certain circumstances, carbonic 
acid is formed. Why this happens, we cannot tell ; and we 
content ourselves with saying, that the union takes place ac- 
cording to chemical laws — in other words, that, in the same 
circumstances, these substances constantly and unvaryingly 
combine in the same manner. Certain properties have been 
bestowed upon carbon and oxygen by the Author of Nature, 
and these never alter. We can scarcely form a notion of 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



25 



what they are in themselves. On this point our present che- 
mical knowledge is meagre in the extreme. As already ob- 
served, when carbon and oxygen meet under certain circum- 
stances they form carbonic acid, but we understand nothing 
of various important modifications which ensue by the addi- 
tion of nitrogen and hydrogen. A grain of wheat is composed 
of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and some alkaline and 
earthy salts. The different atoms are so constituted, that, in 
certain circumstances, a disturbance of them takes place — mo- 
tion ensues, and different additional changes of matter follow, all 
according to the fixed properties of the different atoms. So long 
as the grain of wheat remains unaltered, so long as its atoms 
retain their original position and their original powers of action 
upon each other, it retains the capability of being called into 
life ; that is, of passing through a series of changes totally in- 
dependent of any volition on its part, but which ensue according 
to laws analogous to those which guide the motions of a watch, 
only much more complicated in their nature. The great 
problem would be to arrange the atoms of matter in such a 
way, that, in certain circumstances, wheat, or oats, or bar- 
ley, should be the produce of the atomic changes in the ele- 
ments which are common to all of these substances. This 
seems to have been done by the great Intelligent Cause at the 
commencement of nature ; and laws of reproduction being 
established, the organised kingdom seems to proceed without 
any more direct supervision than is bestowed upon the inor- 
ganic world. Indeed, many authorities now maintain that 
both are subject to similar laws. This is a startling view 
when we compare man with a stone ; but it is less so when we 
pass from a stone to a shell, from a shell to a piece of wood, 
from that to a sponge, from a sponge to blubber, and so on 
up to man. The extinction of life seems to be nothing more 
or less than a disturbance of the movement of the atoms, simi- 
lar to that which occurs when we blow out a candle. The 
properties of the atoms of the candle remain the same, but 
the circumstances in which they are placed are different, and 
the phenomena which accompany their future motions, if heat 
be not reapplied so as to produce ignition, are also different. I 
need not go farther into the matter. These observations will 
give the reader a view of the nascent ideas on the subject 
now entertained in Germany, and I give them only histori- 
cally as such. 

The advocates of this theory ask the question : — If life be 
due to a vital principle, what becomes of it in frozen fishes, 
and dried animalculse, some of which may be retained in a 
desiccated condition for years ? According to the new theory, 



26 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



the conditions of change were simply removed ; restore them, 
and life, that is, motion of their particles, returns. When a 
man faints and falls into the water, he is much more likely 
to be restored to animation, even after a considerable period 
of immersion, than if he had fallen in while the vital changes 
were in full activity : The vital functions go on more slowly 
in a fainting man, than in one in full health and activity ; 
and less oxygen being needed, want of respiration is not so 
soon fatal. His condition is analogous to that which occurs 
in hybernating animals, and in men who in India are tempo- 
rarily buried, and revive. 

I have observed that those in whom the organs of Wonder, 
Imitation, and Ideality, are large, are predisposed to regard life 
as a distinct force superadded to matter ; while those in whom 
these organs are moderately developed, and in whom Causality 
and Comparison are large, are inclined to prefer the latter 
theory, or some one analogous to it. They ascribe to matter, 
when placed in certain circumstances, the power of assuming 
organic forms and maintaining organic action, as one of its 
own attributes.* By such of them as are Theists, however, 
this power is regarded as derived from the Deity. As before 
remarked, there is no satisfactory evidence to show that inor- 
ganic matter can organise itself. 

Many divines, as well as philosophers, have held the opi- 
nion that man has no spiritual substance or soul distinct from 
the body, but becomes extinct at death, and so continues till 
the resurrection. Among these are Milton,f Locke, % Bishops 
Sherlock§ and Law, || Dr John Taylor,^ Dr Priestley,** Eobert 
Hall,tf and Archdeacon Blackburne ;JJ to whom may be added 
Bishop Watson, although, being naturally averse to dogma- 
tism on subjects so abstruse, he went no farther than to say 
that he thought the point doubtful — declaring that he was 
" not disturbed at his inability clearly to convince himself that 
the soul is or is not a substance distinct from the body ;"§§ that 

* See an Inquiry into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life and Orga- 
nization. By John Barclay, M.D. Edinburgh, Bell and Bradfute, 1822. 
t Treatise on Christian Doctrine, vol. i., p. 250. 

X The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures ; at the be- 
ginning. 

§ Discourses vi. and xlix. ; Sherlock's Works, ed. 1830, vol. i., p. 124, and vol. ii., 
p. 431. 

II Considerations on the Theory of Religion, 5th ed., pp. 49, 186 ; and more parti- 
cularly, Discourse appended to it (pp. 343-429) on the Nature and End of Death under 
the Christian Covenant. 

% Letter to Bishop Law, quoted by the latter, p. 422. 

** Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit. Lond. 1777. 

tf Letter to his Congregation at Bristol in 1790, quoted in the Encyc. Brit., 7th ed., 
vol. xi., p. 115. 

XX Blackburne's Works, vols. ii. and in. 

§§ Anecdotes of his own Life, 2d ed., vol. i., p. 24. 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



27 



" he despaired of ever seeing the question clearly decided, 
whether the brain is the efficient or the instrumental cause of 
sensation ;** and that " if the Gospel is not true, he could have 
no expectation of a future state." f 

The discovery of the cause of life or the nature of the vital 
principle may be practically important ; because if man could 
find it out and ascertain the conditions under which it acts, 
he might acquire the power of influencing the formation of 
organisms at their source, and hence might modify the whole 
series of their actions. Theologically considered, however, 
this discovery appears to be unimportant ; because if we admit 
the existence of God, and believe that in calling man into ex- 
istence He had a purpose, we cannot conceive that He should 
have chosen a wrong substance out of which to fashion him. 
We may rest assured that the object of man's existence, be it 
what it may, will be accomplished, of whatever essence his 
organism consists. 

I may add, that the opinion is now very general among 
thinking men, that the question of immortality has no depen- 
dence on that of the immateriality of the soul and possibility of 
its separate existence, but that, whatever the nature of the soul 
is, it can be immortal or mortal only^by the will of God. J 

Some of the advocates of a superadded vital principle enter- 
tain the notion that it is spiritual or immaterial, and that it 
acts even in the present life independently of matter. This, 
however, appears to me to be an error. Even assuming the 
existence of a separate and superadded vital principle, it does 
not follow that the body, compounded of it and matter, pos- 
sesses the attributes generally ascribed to an immaterial being 
or soul ; or that the vital principle, while forming a part of 
the living organism, is emancipated from the laws and control 
of matter. A more reasonable proposition would be, that the 
unknown principle, when combined with diversities of orga- 
nic structure, would produce diversities of living powers. Com- 
bined with the organism of vision, for example, we may sup- 
pose that it would produce vision: but vision is not emancipated 
by it from the influence of matter ; on the contrary, this sense 
is affected by every cause that changes the condition of the 
structure, and is exercised according to fixed laws, which are 
embodied in the science of optics. The same remarks apply 
to the organs of hearing, touch, taste, and smell. And not 
only so, but the vital principle, combined with one portion of 

* Anecdotes of Ms own life, 2d ed., vol. ii., p. 400. f lb., vol. i., p. 395. 

X This opinion is expressed by Or John Taylor in a passage quoted by Bishop Law, 
p. 423 ; by Dugald Stewart, Prelim. Disert. to Encyc. Brit., p. 58 ; and by sundry other 
writers mentioned in the Phren. Jour. xv. 348. See Locke's opinion on the subject in 
detail, Phren. Jour. xvi. 60 ; and Baron Smith's, xvi. 287. 



28 



OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN. 



the brain, maybe supposed to produce the emotion of Venera- 
tion; with another portion the sentiment of justice; with another 
the power of perceiving melody; with another the power of con- 
ceiving efficiency ; and every one of these emotions and powers 
will be liable to be improved, deranged, or destroyed, by che- 
mical and mechanical causes which affect the structure. A 
few drops of prussic acid will extinguish their action ; a cer- 
tain dose of chloroform, morphia, or alcohol, will excite, a lar- 
ger dose will suspend, and a still larger dose will destroy them. 
Be the compound of the vital principle with the chemical ele- 
ments, therefore, what it may, it is able, up only to a certain 
point, and under regulated conditions, to resist the usual 
agency of chemical forces, and at all times its condition is 
liable to be changed by them as well as by functional action. 
There is thus no warrant for assuming that the phenomena 
of life, including volition, emotion, and intelligent judgment, 
are in this world performed by a being unconnected with, and 
independent of matter. Some evidence on this subject is 
given in the appendix, No. II. 

The human body appears to be a mechanism constructed to 
grow for a certain number of years, to remain nearly stationary 
for a certain time, then to commence a process of decay, and 
finally to suffer dissolution, all its parts reverting to the inor- 
ganic state. 

Each tissue preserves its state of health, unless forced into 
morbid action by influences foreign to itself ; and when it is 
disordered, a series of changes commences in it, the tendency 
of which is to restore it to the healthy condition. The great 
organs of the body, composed of these tissues, retain in their 
compound state the same property of self-preservation. As 
long as the conditions under which they were brought to 
maturity remain unchanged, they continue sound, and their 
action is normal. When disordered, they also commence a 
series of actions to regain the state of health ; — if unsuccess- 
ful, the changes end in death. 

Each is endowed with a specific function, such as digestion, 
respiration, or secretion ; and health and life depend on the 
combined, harmonious, and normal action of the whole. " The 
action of every tissue thus contributes, by virtue of its natural 
constitution, both to its own preservation, and to the function 
of the compound organ into the formation of which it enters. 
By the same law the action of every compound organ contri- 
butes in like manner both to self-preservation and to the more 
general welfare of the body. Every one of these actions is 
regulated by fixed laws/'* 

* Dr Combe's Physiology of Digestion, Preface. 



OF THE MENTAL OEGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



29 



SECTION II. — OF THE MENTAL ORGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 

We become acquainted with mental states, and also with the 
external world, its relations, and its causes, by means of our 
mental faculties. Let us, therefore, next inquire into these. 

Although all our knowledge of mental phenomena is de- 
rived from consciousness, consciousness, as a direct source of 
information, gives no intimation whatever of the causes of 
our sensations, feelings, perceptions, and judgments. We 
are conscious only of these mental states and acts them- 
selves. We may discover by observation and reflection the 
objects which excite them, and the circumstances in which 
they arise ; but after we have ascertained these, we are not 
advanced one step in our discovery of the cause of the powers 
themselves. 

Moreover, we have no consciousness of the substance of which 
the thinking part of us is composed. This is another impor- 
tant proposition which it is necessary to keep in view in our 
subsequent investigations. The name " Mind," has been given 
to the collective powers of sensation, feeling, perception, and 
judgment, of which we are conscious ; and as the phenomena 
which they produce are unlike any acts or states which are 
observed in inanimate matter, mind has been assumed to be 
something altogether different from matter, and its substance 
or essence has, in contradistinction to that of matter, been 
called spirit. 

But, apparently, mind, as something distinct from matter, 
as a spirit, or an immaterial essence, is absolutely unknown to 
us, and the popular opinion to the contrary seems to owe its 
origin to our being unconscious while in health of the influ- 
ence of the brain in acts of feeling and thinking. The logical 
conclusion to be drawn from the facts known to us is, that 
mind is an aggregate of individual powers of sensation, emo- 
tion, perception, and judgment, each of which depends for its 
action in this world on the size and condition of a particular 
part of the brain ; that each stands in definite relations to the 
others, and to a certain class of external objects ; and that 
each may exist, strong or weak, in a state of health or disease, 
cultivated or uncultived, in the same individual A man, for 
example, may have powerful vision, and dull hearing ; or he 
may be blind, but not deaf ; or he may have had his eye-sight 
greatly improved by exercise, or impaired by intense study. 
Another man may possess a powerful sentiment of Benevo- 
lence, and a weak sentiment of Veneration ; his faculty of 



30 OF THE MENTAL ORGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 

'Veneration may have become diseased, while his sentiment of 
Benevolence has remained sound ; Veneration may have been 
cultivated while Benevolence has been left dormant, or vice 
versa. Nay more, each of the cerebral organs, be its ultimate 
elements what they may, acts as a mental force, and produces 
distinct moral or intellectual results, analogous to the effects 
produced by the different qualities of matter. 

If we could enter fully into the consciousness of individuals, 
we should discover that in each the mind was as distinctly and 
powerfully affected by these differences in the condition of the 
various organs and faculties, as the body is by differences in 
the condition of its separate organs ; and that instead of a 
distinct mind or spiritual being existing in each of us, the 
exact counterpart of the mind of all other individuals, and 
uninfluenced by the organism, each of us is a compound of 
many mental attributes, which differ individually in in- 
tensity in different persons, and render the consciousness or 
mind of each of us only a modified type of that of our fellow 
men. The man whose brain is small, and whose lungs and 
abdomen are large, would err grievously if he supposed that- 
all other men in their bodily constitutions were exact types of 
himself, felt as he felt, and could act only as he could act ; 
were he to write books or legislate on such an assumption, he 
would only propound or enact error. Just so, an individual 
deficient in Benevolence or Veneration, who should assume 
mankind in general to feel in those departments of emotion 
exactly like himself, would be grievously mistaken ; and were 
he to institute a series of practical arrangements, or to found 
a school of philosophy or a sect in religion, on such a basis, 
he would carry with him only those whose minds were con- 
stituted like his own. 

Since consciousness, then, makes us acquainted only with 
our own mental states, and affords no information concerning 
the causes of them, our next inquiry is, Whether observation 
leads to any more extended knowledge ? It unfolds to us cer- 
tain causes which affect our mental condition, of which causes 
consciousness gives us no intimation. To borrow an illustra- 
tion from the body : consciousness gives us no intimation of 
the existence of the spinal cord, or of the nerves of sensation 
and motion proceeding from it, which are ramified on the 
muscles and skin. We are conscious of volition to move the 
limbs, and of the cold and heat which ice and fire occasion; 
but in a state of health we have no consciousness whatever of 
the existence of the organs by means of which these actions 
and sensations are produced. By observation, however, of the 
structure of the parts, and of the effects of injuries of them, 



OF THE MENTAL ORGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



31 



we have discovered that for the powers of voluntary motion 
and sensation in the limbs, we are absolutely dependent on 
the nerves and spinal marrow. In like manner, although, in 
a state of health, we are unconscious of the existence of the 
brain, and of its influence on our mental states,* yet observa- 
tion throws an important light on this subject. It makes us 
acquainted with a pulpy substance, composed partly of white 
and parity of grey matter, consisting of many distinguishable 
parts. Into it all the nerves of the external senses enter, 
and with it the nerves of all the other parts of the body are 
in connection. Observation, in short, enables us to discover 
that this part is the organ of the mind, and that by its struc- 
ture, size, age, and health, all mental states, in this world, are 
affected or modified. Without it there is no consciousness : 
when it is impaired, our mental faculties suffer a corresponding 
enfeeblement, and when it is excited, they glow with a cor- 
responding fervour. 

As these facts appear to me to be of fundamental import- 
ance in forming sound conclusions regarding the means or in- 
struments through which the moral government of the world 
is conducted, I beg to refer the reader to the evidence of them 
contained in the Phrenological works named below. f 

Consciousness localises the mental acts in the head, and gives 
us a full conviction that they are performed there, although it 
does not reveal what substance occupies the interior of the 
skull, or the influence of that substance on our powers of think- 
ing and feeling. It is worthy of observation also, that the po- 

* Some individuals have stated that in health they are conscious of the existence of 
the brain and of its functions ; but it is clear from the general ridicule with which Dr 
Gall's announcement of its functions was received, that these must be exceptional cases. 

f Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, et sur celles de chacune de ses Parties. Par F. J. 
Gall, M J). Paris, 1825. 6 vols. 8vo. 

Phrenology, or the Doctrine of the Mind, and of the Relations between its Manifes- 
tations and the Body. By J. G. Spurzheim, M.D. London, 1825. 

A View of the Philosophical Principles of Phrenology. By J. G. Spurzheim, M.D. 
London, 1825. 

Phrenology in connexion with the Study of Physiognomy. By J. G. Spurzheim, M.D. 
London, 1826. 

A System of Phrenology. By George Combe. 5th ed. Edinburgh, 1843. 2 vols. 8vo . 
The Phrenological Journal, 1824-1847. 20 vols. 8vo. 

The effects of morbid states of the brain on the mental powers is illustrated also in the 
following works. If the public were familiarly acquainted with the facts recorded in 
these, and other authorities, they could not continue to view any psychological system 
which omits the consideration of the brain as of practical value : — 

Annals of Phrenology, No. 1., Boston, U. S., Oct. 1833, p. 37. 

Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. 46, p. 366, Oct. 1835. 

Nouveaux Elemens de Physiologie, 7th edit., ii. 195-6. 

Hennen's Principles of Military Surgery. 

Principles of Medicine. By Samuel Jackson, M.D. 

Elliotson's Blumenbach, 4th edit., p. 283. 

Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation, &c, upon Health. By Amariah 
Brigham, M.D. 2d edit., p. 23. Boston, U. S. 1833. 



32 



OF THE MENTAL OKGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



pular notions of the independence of the mind on the body are 
modern, and the offspring of philosophical theories that have 
sprung up chiefly since the days of Locke. In Shakspeare and 
the older writers, the word "brains" is frequently used as im- 
plying the mental functions. 

The cases which are supposed to contradict these assertions 
are easily explained. It is often said of persons dying at an 
advanced age that their mental faculties remained entire to 
the last. The real meaning of this phrase is, that the patients 
were not deranged ; that is to say, that, in so far as they were 
capable of manifesting the mind, their faculties acted nor- 
mally: but it is a complete mistake to suppose that their minds 
were then as capable of profound investigation, of vivid emo- 
tion, and of energetic action, as in the maturity of life. Some- 
times cerebral excitement from disease renders the mind par- 
ticularly brilliant, however weak the body at large may be. 
The fact of the mental powers being the last to fade, is ex- 
plained by the circumstance, that the brain and nervous sys- 
tem suffer the least diminution of size in the general decay of 
the corporeal frame.* 

The bearing of these facts on the moral government of the 
world will be subsequently explained. Meantime, I may re- 
mark, that all reasoning on the mind, its phenomena and laws, 
which overlooks the influence of the brain, — and all reason- 
ings on mind in general, and on the individual faculties of 
man in particular, — which omit consideration of the effects of 
the size and condition of the special organs on the manifesta- 
tions of these faculties, are in a scientific, as well as a practi- 
cal point of view, defective in a fundamental element of truth. 
In considering a compound result, our judgments become 
sound only in proportion to our recognition of all the causes 
which contribute towards its production. We may reason on 
gravitation as an abstract force, irrespective of the material 
substances which gravitate ; but until we ascertain the quali- 
ties of physical objects which affect their gravitating power, we 
shall never attain to either a scientific or a practical comprehen- 
sion of it. A feather and a piece of lead, of the same size, both 
gravitate, but with very different degrees of energy. A theory 
of gravitation ignoring the influence of density, would be 
somewhat analogous to a system of mental philosophy, omit- 
ting the influence of its brain and of the individual parts on 
the mental manifestations. 

* The brain and spinal cord lose only 0-019 of their original substance in a warm- 
blooded animal starved to death. Of the fat, 0-933 parts are lost ; of the blood, 0*750 ; 
of the muscles, 0*423; of the organs of respiration, 0-222; and of the bones, 0-167. 
Chossat, Recherches Experimentales sur l'lnanition, p. 92. Paris, 1843. See also The 
Physiology of Digestion, by Andrew Combe, M.D., p. 86. Edit. 1849. 



OF THE MENTAL ORGANS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 33 



SECTION III. — OF THE PARTICULAR FACULTIES OF THE MIND, THEIR 
CEREBRAL ORGANS, MODES OF ACTIVITY, AND USES AND ABUSES. 

These subjects are treated of in detail in the phrenological 
and other works before named (page 31) ; to which I beg 
leave to refer. In the Appendix No. I. a list of the organs, 
and an outline of their positions in the brain, are given, to 
assist such readers as may not have access to these works ; 
but as they embrace only names and divisions of space, they 
are not meant as substitutes for the treatises. It is necessary 
here only to recapitulate the following general conclusions, 
which are considered as ascertained : — 

1st, That men in general, in the state of health, have no 
consciousness of the existence or uses of the brain. 

2dly, That in consequence of this want of consciousness, 
men, in general, in all ages, have ascribed the phenomena of 
sensation, emotion, and thought, exclusively to a spiritual en- 
tity which they have named the Mind. 

Sdly, That certain facts discoverable by observation, demon- 
strate that the brain is the organ of the mental functions, and 
that no consciousness, and no mental manifestations, take 
place, in our present state, without its agency. 

kbhly, That the condition of the brain affects both the joower 
and the quality of the mental manifestations. 

It is of much importance in this inquiry to bear in mind 
that the size and condition of particular parts of the brain de- 
termine the degree of energy and activity of particular facul- 
ties of the mind. For example ; if the part of the brain 
which serves to manifest the emotion of Veneration be very 
deficient, that emotion will be very imperfectly known through 
the consciousness of the individual ; and no external influences 
hitherto discovered, falling within the sphere of natural action, 
will enable him to experience it in a normal degree. If that 
part be very large, and his temperament be active, he will be 
conscious of strong emotions of that description, and will feel 
great pleasure in religious exercises. And if that part become 
diseased, the effect may be prostration or extinction of the emo- 
tion, if the disease destroy the organ ; or a morbid exaltation 
of it, if the malady excite the cerebral convolutions into ab- 
normal vivacity, without impairing their structure. And so 
of all the other mental faculties and their organs. 

Each mental faculty is a distinct power, the strength of 
which depends, as I have said, on the size and condition of 
its organ; and each has a prescribed sphere of action which is 
regulated by fixed laws. For example, Acquisitiveness is the 

c 



34 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



desire for property. Its power and activity depend on the size 
and condition of its organ. Property can be called into exis- 
tence only by complying with certain conditions woven into the 
order of nature, and not dependent on the will of man ; and it can 
be distributed so as to produce general well-being, only accord- 
ing to certain rules, also fixed by the nature of things and beings, 
and not alterable by man. If, in any individual, the desire be 
too feeble, or too strong, or be unguided by knowledge, and if, 
in consequence, it acts in contravention of those rules, disap- 
pointment and suffering will ensue ; and the same propositions 
may be stated in regard to all the other faculties. 

The key to the moral government of the world, therefore, is 
to be found in a knowledge of these mental forces and of the 
laws to which they are subjected. 

The evidence on which certain mental organs are considered 
to be ascertained, and the existence and functions of others 
rendered probable, is stated in the works on Phrenology before 
mentioned. It is not considered necessary to enter into a de- 
tailed statement of that evidence here ; because this may be 
seen in the works alluded to, and because I here assume that 
the present treatise will have no practical influence, until, by 
the advance of the public mind, that evidence and its conse- 
quences shall have been studied with the attention and earnest- 
ness which so important a subject demands. 



SECTION IV. — IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 

As our ideas of physical things are formed through the me- 
dium of faculties which are common to all the race, it would 
be possible to arrive at unanimity of opinion concerning them, 
provided every individual possessed the faculties in an equal 
degree of perfection, and had applied them in the same di- 
rection, and with equal assiduity. But as the organs of 
the external senses and of the intellectual faculties differ 
widely in size, quality, and cultivation, in different persons, 
this unanimity is unattainable. The same remark applies to 
the religious and all the other emotions. If religious emotions 
exist, and if their organs were equally large and active, equally 
cultivated, and directed to the same objects, in all men, all 
would be equally religious ; but as these organs differ in size, 
activity, and cultivation, in different persons, some are ardently 
religious, while others deny the existence of religious emotions 
altogether. The emotions, moreover, are differently directed 
in different individuals ; and hence, unanimity in regard to 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



35 



the objects to which they should be addressed, is not to be 
expected. 

These facts do not lead logically to universal scepticism ; 
because they do not deny the existence of religious emotions 
and their organs. On the contrary, by establishing the exist- 
ence of organs for the religious emotions, while we show how 
widely their size, cultivation, and direction, differ in different 
persons, we remove the objections to the existence of religion 
which these differences naturally suggest. In proportion as 
men reach the highest points of cerebral development, temper- 
ament, and cultivation, the nearer will they approach to unani- 
mity in regard to moral and religious truths. The same form 
and size of brain and cultivation may be found in a sincere 
Eoman Catholic and a sincere Protestant ; but their faculties 
having been directed to different objects in their youth, each 
has failed to give the same consideration to the objects vene- 
rated by his neighbour which he has given to his own. 

Organs for the following emotions have been discovered and 
proved to exist in man : viz., Wonder, Ideality, Veneration, 
Hope, Conscientiousness, and Benevolence. In the works of 
Drs Gall and Spurzheim, and other writers on Phrenology, and 
in the Phrenological Journal, the history of the discovery, and a 
mass of evidence in support of the organs are given. Those 
readers who desire seriously to investigate the basis on which 
this treatise rests, will naturally examine these works, and 
appeal to nature ; and it is therefore unnecessary for their 
satisfaction to detail the evidence here. Individuals, again, 
who regard this work as a collection of mere speculative opi- 
nions, like the philosophies of ethical writers who were unac- 
quainted with Phrenology, or of those who choose to ignore it, 
would treat any amount of narrated evidence only as words ; 
and it is, therefore, unnecessary to state it for their edifi- 
cation. 

OF THE ORGAN OF WONDER. 

The primitive function of this faculty appears to me to be 
to produce the love of the new. Its gratification is accom- 
panied by an emotion which we name surprise ; and as this 
feeling is highly ^ pleasurable, it prompts us to pursue the 
new, and leads to inventions in art, and discoveries in science. 
The faculty is adapted to the constitution of the external 
world ; for the whole of nature, animate and inanimate, is in a 
continual state of decay and renovation. Carlyle has well re- 
marked, that the whole of this world is habitually in a state of 
revolution. Nothing stands still. This faculty renders the 

c 2 



36 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



new agreeable to us, while Destmctiveness places us in har- 
mony with the dissolution of the old. 

Ideality produces the peculiar emotion which is experienced 
when we behold beautiful objects ; and it gives a desire to im- 
prove everything, and to advance constantly towards perfec- 
tion. When it acts in combination chiefly with our emotional 
and observing faculties, it may stimulate the intellect to imagine 
poetical scenes which cannot stand the test of scientific ana- 
lysis ; and it frequently is thus employed. In like manner, a 
high degree of development or morbid excitement of the organ 
of Wonder, by giving an intense desire for the new and -strange, 
may prompt the intellect, when uninstructed in science, to 
imagine a supernatural world, which reason cannot penetrate 
or recognise. Fairy-land, and the witch scene in Macbeth, 
may be cited as examples. 

This organ, when very large and active, or when morbidly 
excited, leads to a belief in ghosts, spirits, and a spiritual world, 
in which the human mind is supposed to act independently of 
matter. These notions bear the same relation to it that the 
imagery of poetry bears to Ideality. They gratify the emotion, 
although rigid science ignores them. A full account of the 
discovery and effects of the organ of Wonder is given in Gall's 
work, Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, tome v., p. 341 ; in Dr 
Spurzheim's "Phrenology," p. 206 ; and in my System of Phre- 
nology, vol. i., p. 449, 5th edition. 

In the Phrenological Journal, vol.i., pp. 541 and 553, the sub- 
ject of spectral illusions, or apparitions, is largely discussed, and 
evidence adduced that they result from morbid action of the or- 
gans of the observing faculties. The organ of Wonder, when 
very highly developed, and also when diseased, stimulates these 
organs into a state of abnormal action, and causes them to 
generate apparitions or spectral illusions. There is evidence 
that the organ of Wonder is not sufficient by itself to give form 
and colour to spectral illusions, but that these originate in the 
abnormal activity of the perceptive organs. In the same 
work, vol. v., p. 594, a case is recorded in which diseased 
structure was found under the portion of the cranium lying- 
above the organ of Wonder; and the patient, an educated man 
of 41 years of age, had long complained of being tormented by 
invisible beings, whose agency and influence he felt, but 
whom he never could see. In him the observing organs were 
not affected. 

As a contrast to this instance, the case of an old gentleman 
of 94 years of age is described in the same journal, vol. x., p. 
352, in whom disease, indicating chronic inflammation, was 
found in the falx and in the dura mater, covering Firmness, 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



37 



Benevolence, Veneration, Imitation, and Wonder, on both 
sides, and in the portion of the skull covering the organ of 
Wonder, on the left side, which was thickened by descent of 
the inner table ; and there were indications also of chronic 
inflammatory action and other disease in the anterior lobe. 
He never was insane, but he saw visions, coloured, and of va- 
rious forms, which he knew to be spectral illusions ; and 
he lost the knowledge of the meaning of words, while he 
knew objects and judged of them soundly. Additional cases 
of spectral illusions are recorded in vol. v., pp. 210, 319, 430 ; 
— and at p. 504 of the same volume the subject of witchcraft 
is discussed in connection with this and other organs. 

A gentleman in whom the organ of Wonder is large, and 
the reflecting organs are fully, although not largely developed, 
told me that when a marvellous incident or miraculous nar- 
rative is presented to him, his instinctive tendency is to believe 
it. In its mere marvellousness, it possesses to him so great 
an interest that he is disposed at once, and with pleasure, to 
embrace it as true. An effort of his intellect is required to 
arrest his tendency to believe, and to enable him to subject 
the narrative to a philosophical investigation. 

Here, then, we discover an organ which, in a state of high 
development and activity, and also in one of disease, gives a love 
of the supernatural ; and which, when acting with the percep- 
tive organs in a morbid condition, produces spectral illusions, 
which the ignorant mistake for supernatural appearances. 

I have observed, that when this organ and that of Vene- 
ration are large, and there is a nervous or sanguine tempera- 
ment, and even when the intellectual organs are well deve- 
loped, a strong predisposition exists to believe in spiritual 
beings and agencies. It is this combination which, when un- 
graded by science, produces belief in spirit-rapping, table- 
turning, and other supernatural phenomena, about which so 
much has recently been published. Persons thus constituted 
recoil from such investigations as that in which we are now 
engaged, as repugnant to their feelings. There is in nature 
no evidence accessible to man of the existence in this world 
of creatures unconnected with matter ; but we appear to be 
capable of recognising the existence of intelligence, design, 
power, and other mental qualities behind the screen of mat- 
ter, although our own faculties are not adequate to the dis- 
covery or comprehension of the nature of the Being who ma- 
nifests them. Wonder appears to stand related to this super- 
natural power in a way somewhat analogous to that in which 
Benevolence stands related to pleasure and pain in sentient 
beings. Pain, which Benevolence desires to remove, and plea- 



38 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



sure, which it loves to augment, are not material objects, but 
emotions produced by nervous matter existing in certain con- 
ditions and under certain relations to external objects. It is 
through the organ of Benevolence that emotions of joy or pity 
arise in us when we contemplate certain states of pleasure or 
of pain in other sentient beings ; and this occurs although we 
do not yet know the molecular condition of the organism which 
causes any of these feelings to arise. In like manner, Won- 
der starts into action when the intellect contemplates the 
agencies and relations of things, and seems to generate a be- 
lief in the existence of a supernatural power, although the 
intellect cannot penetrate into the mystery of what the nature 
of this power is. 

When the organs of Wonder and Veneration are very defi- 
cient in an individual, and his intellectual organs are powerful 
and trained in science, he regards the wonderful and superna- 
tural with dislike. All discourses about the undemonstrable ap- - 
pear to him to be dreams, and he is apt to despise the intellects 
of men who seriously believe in a supernatural power and in- 
telligence which has given properties to matter, and placed 
its action under laws, and which makes its existence felt by 
man, although he is incapable of thoroughly comprehending 
and defining it. In this respect the disputant resembles the 
man who, being extremely deficient in the organs of Time and 
Tune, pronounces music to be merely a confused noise. 



VENERATION, HOPE, AND IDEALITY. 

Dr Gall discovered this organ by observing the heads of 
persons particularly prone to devotional exercises, one of 
whom was his own brother. He studied the heads of many 
devotees praying before the altars in the Roman Catholic 
churches of Germany, and arrived at conviction of the situa- 
tion and functions of this organ. It is regarded by phrenolo- 
gists as fully supported by irrefragable evidence. 

The function of the faculty is to produce the emotion or 
sentiment of reverence or veneration in general, on perceiving 
an object at once great and good. It and the organ of Won- 
der form the emotional fountains whence natural religion 
springs, and the combined action of the two produces adora- 
tion. They are aided by Ideality and Hope. 

The organ of Ideality gives rise to the love of the perfect, 
and when acting with Veneration, leads to the desire of per- 
fection in holiness. The organ of Hope produces the expec- 
tation that we shall realise what we desire, and, when added 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



39 



to this combination, produces faith and confidence, that some- 
how or other, somewhere or other, and at some time or other, 
this condition of perfect holiness will be attained. 

These emotions are particularly grand, pleasing, soothing, 
or exciting, according to the degree in which their organs are 
possessed, and the manner in which they are addressed by ex- 
ternal influences. They exercise a powerful influence on all 
the other faculties, and, when vividly active, frequently over- 
power reason. To those in whom they are large and active, 
religious exercises afford the greatest pleasure, and are invested 
with deep solemnity and interest. When the organ of Vene- 
ration alone is large, and it has been directed chiefly to persons 
of high rank, it is often found venerating them and their sta- 
tion, and producing little regard for religion ; but the emotion 
is still one of reverence, the object only being changed. 

When this organ is very small, the emotion of reverence is 
scarcely experienced. Fear of future punishment and hope 
of future reward, love of approbation, the expectation of 
worldly advancement, and other motives, may lead persons 
thus organized to profess an interest in religion, and to show 
great zeal for articles of faith, the church, and other objects 
and observances connected with public worship ; but they, 
nevertheless, are feebly moved by genuine sentiments of de- 
votion. I have observed that individuals who have large or- 
gans of Wonder and Veneration, and who, by training, have 
been deeply imbued with certain theological opinions, will, ne- 
vertheless, if their organs of Benevolence, Conscientiousness, 
and intellect be large and well cultivated, not hesitate to mo- 
dify their articles of faith according to their own convictions 
of truth ; while, on the other hand, those persons in whom the 
last named organs are deficient, and who, nevertheless, profess 
a profound reverence for religion, are the grand sticklers for 
creeds, articles of faith, and the forms and ceremonies of 
public worship. The moral sentiments not being powerful in 
their minds, they lean on religious dogmas for guidance and 
support, and conclude that these are equally needed by all 
other persons : hence they attach an undue importance to them, 
and insist on every believer embracing the identical opinions 
which they entertain. The more strongly both the moral and 
religious emotions exist in any individual, along with vigor- 
ous and enlightened intellect, the more firmly does he rely 
on their native power and efficacy for good ; the less he cares 
for formulas ; the more large-minded and tolerant he becomes 
in his estimates of the faith of other men who differ from him, 
and the more progressive is he in his own opinions. 



40 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



The religious emotions are liable to be invaded by disease. 
Dr A. Combe thus describes religious insanity : — 

" Eeligious fanaticism, or excessive and ill-directed activity 
of Veneration and some other sentiments, has long been re- 
garded as a most fruitful source of insanity, and is a pure spe- 
cimen of a functional cause. ' It was so frequent at a former 
time in France, that out of many cases in regard to the causes 
of which Pinel could procure information, nearly one-fourth 
arose from religious enthusiasm carried to excess. But, in 
these instances, it almost invariably happened that some one 
or more of the lower propensities had been in a state of active 
alliance with misdirected devotion, and brought about a conflict 
in the mind, which the organism could not withstand. 

" It is quite certain, for instance, that every new sect that 
appears inflicts mental derangement upon numbers of its vo- 
taries ; and the more violent, startling, and extraordinary the 
doctrines enforced, and the wider the difference between them 
and those previously entertained, the more extensively will 
nervous disease and insanity follow ; for in the same propor- 
tion will their extravagancies be calculated to interest the 
greater number of powerful faculties, exalt the healthy action 
of the brain, and excite to disease. And, accordingly, in speak- 
ing of the form of mental derangement generally arising from 
this cause, under the name of devout melancholy, 1 there are/ 
says an author whose writings are remarkable for sagacity 
and accuracy of observation, ' few practitioners who have not 
had opportunities of seeing some shocking instances of this 
disease. The greatness and excellence of the object, and the 
satisfaction the soul experiences in giving itself up to the 
contemplation of the Almighty, excite too lively a sensation, 
and produce in the brain a tension too violent and too con tinual 
to be supported for a long time without injury ; it soon throws 
the mind into fanatical madness, and exhausts the body. I 
have seen the most amiable young persons, led away by an 
erroneous system, fade and fall away into decay, neglecting 
the duties of their calling, in order to give up their thoughts 
wholly to the Supreme Author of their being, who could not 
have been more properly glorified than by a strict attention 
to those duties/* 

" The preceding is a sketch evidently drawn from nature, 
but an example or two will make its accuracy more striking, 
and its utility more evident to the unprofessional reader : — A 
lady of middle age who had always been cheerful and regular 
in her devotions, went, during the winter, on a visit to a family — 



* Tissot on the Diseases of Literary and Sedentary Persons, p. 68. 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



41 



followers of Swedenborg. Being pressed, she went and heard 
their doctrines propounded, and, for the first time, began to 
doubt the truth of her own views. She returned to London in 
great disquietude of mind, and in this state accompanied her 
mother to church on Easter Sunday, and remained to receive 
the sacrament. But when the cup was presented to her, she 
was greatly disconcerted and confused to perceive that not a 
single drop of wine remained for her. She hurried home in 
dismay, declared she was lost and rejected of God : and furious 
mania soon came on, of which she was afterwards cured.* In 
this patient, functional excitement of the organs of the religi- 
ous sentiments was obviously the cause of the disease that over- 
set reason. But a still more striking instance of over-excite- 
ment of Veneration and the other religious feelings, leading to 
cerebral disease and insanity, is the case of a young gentleman, 
educated, by his father's particular desire, in the strictest prin- 
ciples of religion, under the care of several divines in succes- 
sion, each of whom 4 was enjoined to be very attentive to his re- 
ligious instruction. Many of the most abstruse doctrines of theo- 
logy were pressed upon him. His mind, consequently, became 
partially bewildered and enfeebled, and impressed with the 
most visionary images. At length, he conceived that his sole 
duty was to pray for the remission of his manifold sins, and 
to study the Bible and particular homilies. Accordingly, if he 
walked out when the devotional fit came upon him, he cared 
not in what puddle he knelt ; or if at his meals, his food was 
quitted for prayer. Soon his spiritual extravagances were so 
many, and, if interrupted, his violence so great, that he was 
pronounced insane/f and removed to Dr Burrows' establishment, 
where he recovered, but afterwards relapsed, and died maniacal. 
Numerous other examples might be quoted, but it is altogether 
unnecessary, as, unhappily, they are so common that almost 
every one must have met with them even in private life. In 
a few cases, I have known pain in the region of the head, cor- 
responding to the organ of Veneration, much complained of. 

" Besides this more simple kind of morbid excitement of Ve- 
neration, there are several varieties in which the organs of Won- 
der, Hope, Conscientiousness, and Ideality, seem to be also im- 
plicated. Where Wonder is joined to Veneration, the attention 
of the patient is generally first strongly attracted by the more 
mysterious parts of our religious faith, and the whole powers 
of the mind are devoted to their contemplation or solution, till 
involuntary excitement be produced, which ends in the subver- 
sion of health and reason, and leaves the mind a prey to visions, 



* Burrows' Commentaries, p. 40. 



f Ibid., p. 43. 



42 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



and to the permanent belief and fear of every species of super- 
natural agency. 

" When Hope and Veneration are the faculties to which the 
functional excitement extends, brilliant anticipations and con- 
fident expectations of a happy futurity mark the character. 
Under such a form of disease, a lady, mentioned by Pinel, evi- 
dently laboured, who became insane in consequence of her 
husband's misfortunes, and who found delightful consolation, 
first, in long meditations and fervent prayer, and, subsequently, 
in ecstatic fits, during which she believed herself raised to the 
bosom of Divinity, and which, from excessive cerebral activity, 
soon terminated in unequivocal insanity. 

" Conscientiousness and Veneration, similarly affected, and 
joined to Cautiousness, give rise to that deplorable form of 
melancholy in which the patient is so overwhelmed by the 
sense of his guilt in the sight of God, that he cannot for a mo- 
ment turn his mind to the hopes held out in the gospel to the 
repentant sinner ; but passes his days and weeks in the deepest 
remorse, insensible to every other impression. Dr Perfect 
gives an instructive example of this kind in a man, naturally 
of a cheerful disposition and lively imagination, and moderate 
in his enjoyments. Some conversations which he had with a 
sombre and melancholy Methodist, made an entire change in 
his views. He renounced all, even the most innocent indul- 
gences, gave himself up to solitude, and from that time regarded 
an eternity of suffering as his inevitable destiny. The Supreme 
Being was represented to him by his friend as cruel, revenge- 
ful, and delighting in the torment of his creatures. These no- 
tions led to sleeplessness, constant moaning, black despair, and 
a tendency to suicide. But in the course of some time, Dr 
Perfect, assisted by a clergyman of true piety and an enlight- 
ened mind, and by a proper moral and physical regimen, suc- 
ceeded in restoring him to health and happiness. 

" Much alarm has unnecessarily been expressed by seriously 
disposed persons at the assertion that madness can ever be 
caused by indulgence of devotional or religious feelings, to 
whatever excess these may be carried ; and no little obloquy 
has been thrown upon those observers whose experience has 
compelled them to state the fact. Even in France, where 
religion is certainly not cultivated with extreme ardour, public 
opinion on this subject was so strong some years ago, that Pinel, 
then the head physician of the largest asylum in Europe, and 
the best acquainted with the facts and history of insanity, was 
so much afraid to brave its censures, that while, on the one 
hand, he expressed his conviction that ' nothing is more com- 
mon in hospitals than cases of alienation produced by too ex- 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



43 



alted devotion, by scruples carried to a destructive excess, or by 
religious terrors he yet felt constrained, by public opinion, to 
' suppress his daily notes, containing a mass of details of this 
hind' which had come under his observation, and to take his 
examples ' elsewhere than in his own country/ or, in other 
words, from the works of English authors ! Surely religion 
rests on too firm a foundation to require such a sacrifice of 
truth and candour to supposed expediency and bigotry. And 
if, in any circumstances, the exercise of our devotional feelings 
even seems to bring on the loss of reason, it is surely not only 
allowable, but a positive duty, for the professional writer under 
whose cognisance these things occur, to investigate accurately, 
and state fearlessly, the conditions under which he has seen 
them happen, that others may be preserved in time from a 
similar affliction/'* 

In contradiction to these views, and as illustrative of opinions 
still very prevalent even among intelligent men, I may quote 
the following observations on insanity made by Dr Heinroth, 
in a work published by him at Leipsic in 1837 : — 

" Insanity," says he, " is the loss of moral liberty ; it never 
depends on a physical cause ; it is not a disease of the body, 
but a disease of the mind — a sin. It is not, and it cannot be, 
hereditary ; because the thinking I, the soul, is not heredi- 
tary. Only the constitution and temperament are transmis- 
sible by generation, against the influence of which every indi- 
vidual whose parents have been insane, should oppose a stre- 
nuous resistance, in order that he may not become alienated. 
The man who, during his whole life, has before his eyes and 
in his heart the image of God, has no occasion to fear that he 
shall ever suffer the loss of reason. It is clear as the light of 
day, that the torments of the unhappy persons known as be- 
witched and possessed, are the consequences of exaltation of 
their remorse of conscience. Man has received not reason 
alone as his inheritance ; he has besides a certain moral power 
which cannot be conquered by any physical power, and which 
never gives way except under the weight of his own faults." 

This passage is quoted and answered by M. Leuret, physician 
to the hospital of Bicetre in Paris, as follows : — 

" It contains as many errors as phrases. To say that a 
man will never become deranged, if, during his whole life, he 
has had in his heart the image of God, is to misunderstand 
the innumerable cases of insanity produced by an ascetic life 
and superstition ; to impute the sufferings of those who believe 
themselves bewitched and possessed by devils, to the remorse 

* Observations on Mental Derangement. By Andrew Combe, M.D., pp. 184-189. 



44 



IS MAN NATURALLY A RELIGIOUS BEING ? 



of their consciences, is to calumniate a class of unfortunate 
individuals who often have committed no other wrongs than 
the one of exaggerating their own faults, or even ascribing to 
themselves some which they have never committed ; to main- 
tain that man possesses a moral power which cannot be over- 
come by any physical power, is to ignore the effects of inju- 
ries of the head, of swallowing certain poisonous substances, 
of inflammation of the membranes of the brain, and other 
causes, in producing mental derangement ; to refuse to ac- 
knowledge that insanity is transmissible by generation, is to 
reject the evidence of experience, and to deny facts which 
every day presents to observation. Dr Heinroth admits that 
the temperament and constitution are transmissible. Be it so ; 
but all the temperaments and every constitution are seen in a 
lunatic asylum. Insanity is not hereditary because the soul 
is not hereditary ! A splendid reason ! What do you know 
about the soul, and what need have you to introduce here 
points of religious belief ? Observe nature, meditate on the 
facts which she presents to you, and you will reject these doc- 
trines, in place of supporting them by arguments, the falsity 
of which is apparent to every understanding."* 

We are now prepared to answer the question, " Is man 
naturally a religious being?" If organs of Wonder, Vene- 
ration, Ideality, and Hope, exist, and are endowed with the 
functions here ascribed to them, it is certain that religious 
emotions and desires are natural to man. The public mind 
will, in its own season, investigate the evidence of the ex- 
istence and functions of these organs ; and when it does so, 
doubt on the subject will vanish. The different degrees of 
development of them in different persons, also, will explain 
the circumstance of some individuals being deeply interested 
in, and others being indifferent about religion ; and put an 
end to the fears which many persons in whom the organs are 
moderately developed, entertain about religion being constantly 
in danger from speculations regarded as subversive of devo- 
tion. It w T ill then be understood that it will be as impossible 
to destroy religion, as to obliterate parental affection, the love 
of property, or any other natural desire which is based on a 
cerebral organ. It will then also be seen that superstition is 
the aberration of those faculties acting in ignorance of the 
natural sciences ; and that, especially, our unconsciousness of 
the functions of the brain and of its action, has led to many 
errors in religious belief. Desires, for example, generated by 
the spontaneous action of the organs of the animal propensities, 



* Du Traitment Moral de la Folie, p. 146. 



IS MAN" NATURALLY A MORAL BEING ? 



45 



have been mistaken for suggestions of the devil ; while the 
joy and fervour arising from a similar action of the religious 
organs have been mistaken for direct influences from Heaven. 

The history of man, in almost every age and country, af- 
fords evidence of the innateness of the religious sentiment in 
his mind, though its intensity, like that of all other emotions, 
is different in different individuals and nations. If the exist- 
ence of musicians, musical instruments, orchestras, music halls, 
and crowds of listeners, indicates that a love of melody and har- 
mony is natural to the highest portion of our race, so must 
the existence of priests, temples, churches, and vast assem- 
blages of worshippers in the same countries, be accepted as 
proof that religious emotions also are part of the natural 
constitution of the same minds. 



SECTION V. — IS MAN NATURALLY A MORAL BEING ? 

The organs of Benevolence and Conscientiousness are dis- 
tinct from, and independent of, those of Wonder and Veneration, 
and they constitute the chief fountains of moral emotion. Ve- 
neration also may be said to belong to the moral faculties, but 
the emotion which it produces is more peculiarly religious. 

The organ of Benevolence was discovered by Dr Gall, and 
he remarks that he collected so great a number of facts in re- 
gard to it, " that there is no fundamental quality or faculty 
whose existence and organ are better established than those of 
Benevolence." This conclusion appears to me to be supported 
by innumerable facts. The organ gives the desire of the hap- 
piness of others, and produces delight in the diffusion of enjoy- 
ment. It disposes to active goodness, and, incases of distress, 
to compassion. It corresponds to the sentiment of " Charity" 
described by St Paul, to that of " Goodness of Nature," by Lord 
Bacon, and to the quality of " Philanthropic? of the Greeks. 

When the organ is large, there is a strong natural inclina- 
tion to kindness, and great pleasure is felt in promoting the 
welfare and enjoyment of all sentient beings. When the organ 
is small, there is indifference to the welfare of others ; and if 
the organs of the propensities, with Self-Esteein, be large, and 
Conscientiousness deficient, intense selfishness will be the 
result. 

The organ of Conscientiousness gives the love of the true in 
contradistinction to the false, — of the real in contradistinction 
to the pretended, and of the genuine in contradistinction to 
the factitious. It produces also the feeling of duty, obligation, 
or incumbency. When the organ is large and active, it is at- 



46 



IS MAN NATURALLY A MORAL BEING ? 



tended with a sense of its own paramount authority over every 
other faculty, and it gives its impulses with a tone which ap- 
pears like the voice of Heaven ; but it requires the aid of the 
other emotional faculties and intellect to guide it to justice. 

The intellectual faculties investigate the qualities and rela- 
tions not only of external objects, but of the desires and emo- 
tions which arise in the mind itself. They, however, do not 
produce these desires and emotions ; and, consequently, unless 
the special organ on which each of these depends is active, the 
intellect cannot become acquainted with it. 

For example, as Causality and Comparison cannot attain to 
a knowledge of melody without the aid of the organ of Tune, 
neither can they reach a knowledge of the emotion of kind- 
ness and compassion, or the disinterested love of the happiness 
of others, without the assistance of the organ of Benevolence ; 
nor, according to my view, can they attain to a knowledge of 
the desire to act justly, to fulfil duty, and to discharge faith- 
fully obligations undertaken, unless aided by the organ of Con- 
scientiousness. The intellect alone may judge of legal obliga- 
tion ; because it is sufficient of itself to discriminate whether 
44 it is so nominated in the bond ;" but without the aid of the 
organ of Conscientiousness, it cannot arrive at a sound conclu- 
sion whether the thing " nominated in the bond" is naturally 
and intrinsically, irrespective of the bond, incumbent or not 
incumbent on him whose signature it bears. 

It is the faculty of Conscientiousness, then, which produces 
the feeling of natural right on the part of one person to de- 
mand, and of natural obligation on another to perform, for 
which we have no single definite expression in the English 
language. What is commonly called justice, is the result of 
this sentiment acting in combination with the intellectual 
powers, the latter investigating the motives and consequences 
of the actions, on the justice or injustice of which Conscienti- 
ousness is to decide ; but they do not feel the peculiar emotion 
which I have attempted to describe. Persons in whom the 
organ of Conscientiousness is very deficient, give the name 
of justice to the dictates of Benevolence or Veneration, or to 
the enactments of the law ; but when the organ is large, the 
individual not only does not limit his sentiments of obligation 
by the requirements of the statute-book, but in some instances 
he will acknowledge that he has no natural title to what the 
civil law places at his disposal, and in other cases that he lies 
under a natural obligation to perform what the law does not 
enforce. In short, he feels within himself an inward law of 
duty, independently of the dictates of Benevolence and Vene- 
ration, and of the terms of statutory enactment. In the words 



IS MAN NATURALLY A MORAL BEING ? 



47 



of St Paul, he is a law unto himself. When the organ is very 
deficient this desire of acting justly is not experienced, and the 
individual generally takes the laws of his country, the precepts 
of his religion, or the opinions of his own social circle, as his 
standards of justice, duty, and obligation. 

Mr John Stuart Mill, in the sixth book of his Logic, appears 
to recognise the fact that our desires of improvement proceed 
from the propensities and sentiments, but that these give mere 
desires, and cannot direct us how to satisfy themselves. Know- 
ledge of the means of doing so must, he says, be acquired by 
the intellect. This rule applies to all our faculties of desire 
and emotion ; and much confusion of opinion would be avoided 
if it were generally known that adequately developed organs 
of both sets of faculties, emotional and intellectual, together 
with a sufficient knowledge of nature, are necessary to sound 
judgment regarding what is beneficial, what is just, what is 
true, what is holy, and what is beautiful. 

There is thus a foundation in nature for morality, distin- 
guishable from that for religion. This being the case, it fol- 
lows that one individual may be naturally moral who is not 
naturally religious, and another may be naturally religious who 
is not naturally moral, according as the one group of organs 
is large and the other small in his brain. Many persons hold 
religion to be the sole foundation of morality, and believe that 
religion rests on revelation alone. They also hold, that re- 
ligion necessarily embraces morality. But these are assump- 
tions at variance with the facts of cerebral physiology, and 
also with the experience of human actions. 



SECTION VI. — IS THERE ANT NATURAL STANDARD OF 
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH ? 

Much has been written about the existence of a natural 
standard of moral and religious truth. If by this phrase we 
mean a test which may be applied to all moral and religious 
emotions, sentiments, and opinions, and conformity to which 
will induce all men to admit them to be sound and true, then 
no such standard exists. A particular emotion, or opinion, 
which is recognised to be natural, just, and true, by a man in 
whom Veneration and Conscientiousness are large, maybe re- 
garded as a factitious intellectual error by another in whom 
these organs are very deficient. The same proposition may be 
repeated in reference to the other moral and religious faculties. 
Again, two individuals, whose moral and religious organs are 
equally well developed, may view the same religious doctrines 



48 



IS THERE ANY NATURAL STANDARD OF 



quite differently, as truth, or error, according as their faculties 
have been trained to reverence or condemn them. Moreover, 
great differences in religious feeling and perception are pro- 
duced by the temperament and state of health of the individual. 
The whole organism must be in a state of complete health to 
enable us to reach the soundest views of religious truth. If the 
nervous system be in a morbid condition, depressing impres- 
sions will be received equally from the Bible and from nature. 
A patient, for example, labouring under delirium tremens may 
perceive the devil rushing out of the wall of his room ready 
to seize him ; or one whose digestive organs are greatly dis- 
ordered, may see all the external world enveloped in gloom 
and misery. In civilized life, in consequence of our habits 
not being yet founded on physiological knowledge, few per- 
sons enjoy complete health ; and from this cause, many of us 
live habitually under erroneous impressions of the true nature 
of man, and its capacities for improvement in knowledge and 
enjoyment. Thus no series of moral and religious propo- 
sitions can be announced, which all men, whatever be their 
original mental constitution, whatever their cultivation and 
training, and whatever their state of health, will acknowledge 
to be sound and true. 

Notwithstanding all those obstacles, however, degrees of 
probability of moral and religious truth may be estimated. 
The more favourable the original cerebral constitution of an 
individual, the higher the cultivation bestowed on his mental 
faculties, and the wider his sphere of information and expe- 
rience, the higher authority he becomes in questions of moral 
and religious truth ; and men in general will recognise his 
views to be true in proportion to the degree in which, in the 
constitution of their own brains, in the cultivation of their own 
faculties, and in the scope of their own observations, they 
approximate to his standard. By improving, therefore, the 
sources from which moral and religious truth are derived, 
namely, development of brain, and cultivation, higher degrees 
of such truths will constantly be attained ; and there will be a 
corresponding approach among mankind to unanimity. If 
design, order, and regularity exist in the constitution of this 
world, it is presumable that the soundest and most comprehen- 
sive views of these will be reached by the best constituted and 
best instructed minds. Moreover, if man is a progressive be- 
ing, it is to be expected that the order of nature will be found 
to be constituted in harmony with his highest state of develop- 
ment and instruction, and that a great part of the disorder 
which he now sees and laments will be seen to arise from his 
own ignorance of himself, of external nature, and of their true 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH ? 



49 



relations to each other. I have elsewhere remarked, that the 
exquisite fineness of the notes which Paganini elicited from 
the violin (in quality they seemed more pure, rich, and ethe- 
real than any sounds that matter could be supposed capable of 
emitting), was the result of his extraordinary development of 
the organs of Tune and Time, combined with an extremely 
sensitive nervous and bilious temperament. Until an indivi- 
dual thus endowed, and thoroughly trained to the practice of 
the art of music, appeared, the high capabilities of wood and 
catgut to yield notes of such exquisite melody were un- 
known ; and a similar reflection may be applicable to the entire 
system of nature. The physical and moral world may be full 
of divine qualities and delicious harmonies, if we only had 
superior minds endowed with sufficient knowledge to evoke 
them. 

In the existing state of philosophy, the reasonings and prac- 
tical suggestions even of the highest and best instructed minds 
constitute very imperfect guides to moral and religious truth : 
because the individuals are still very imperfectly acquainted 
with the grand elements out of which these truths must be 
educed, namely, their own nature, and that of the external 
world ; and not only so, but, from ignorance of the same kind, 
those persons to whom such views as these are addressed, try 
them by the standard of their own feelings, observations, and 
reflections, however imperfect and limited these may be, and 
€ondemn or approve, simply according to the impressions 
made on their minds in this condition. Moreover, if there be, 
as I contend, a systematic arrangement in the physical and 
moral worlds, there will be an external standard by which to 
try the opinions of men ; namely, the results ivhich they pro- 
duce when reduced to practice. If nature be arranged in re- 
lation to the highest condition of the human faculties, then 
those individuals whose cerebral organs are most favourably 
developed, and whose faculties are best trained and most 
highly instructed, will possess a corresponding superiority 
over less gifted persons, in discovering, appreciating, unfold- 
ing, and practically following forth the course of nature. Such 
minds saw the accordance of the principles of free trade with 
the order of nature, and were able to expound a 'priori their 
certain beneficial consequences when practically adopted ; 
while men in whom the organs of the moral sentiments and 
Causality were less developed, or less cultivated and in- 
structed, saw only ruin to public interests in the adoption of 
the scheme. The practical results of any code of morality, or 
religious faith, will, after a sufficient trial, always reveal whe- 
ther it be in accordance with the order of nature or not ; for 

D 



50 STANDARD OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 

well-being is the certain result of our opinions and conduct 
when in harmony, and suffering and discontent the inevitable 
consequence of them when at variance, with the real constitu- 
tion of the physical and moral worlds. 

It may be supposed, that, by means of this external stand- 
ard, ethical and religious truth may be demonstrated to the 
conviction of all men ; and this appears to be believed by 
some advocates of utility as the test of duty. But without 
an adequate development of brain, and high training and in- 
struction of the moral and intellectual faculties, people expe- 
rience great difficulty in perceiving and appreciating what 
constitutes even the elements of their own happiness, and a 
still greater difficulty in discovering the means of realising it. 
The low-brained, ill-fed, ignorant Celt clings to his filthy 
cabin and idle life, and turns a deaf ear to our exposition of the 
happiness which he would experience from habits more in ac- 
cordance with his physical and mental constitutions. If, 
therefore, the views which I am now endeavouring to explain 
should ever become the basis of general opinion and action, 
we may expect that an individual who perceives in himself 
deficiencies of brain, or information, or both, which prevent 
his reaching the elevated emotions and profound views of 
his better constituted and instructed brethren, will be more 
disposed than he is at present, when he believes himself to be 
a normal specimen of human nature, to allow himself to be 
guided by superior minds. On the other hand, he who pos- 
sesses higher cerebral power and more extensive informa- 
tion than the person who assumes the office of directing his 
judgment and controlling his conduct, will appeal to the 
higher standard of his own perceptions and the consequences 
of his opinions, and in everything relating to his own welfare 
and that of his dependants, he will act according to his own 
convictions. Such a man will be disposed to obey the laws and 
observe the customs of the country in which he lives, in so far 
as this is necessary to the peace of society, even although he 
should perceive them to fall far short of his own standards of 
truth, justice, and utility ; but he will only the more earnestly 
strive to induce his compatriots to amend their principles and 
practice. 

In order to judge soundly of the relation between Science 
and Keligion, it is necessary that we should understand how 
far our faculties are capable of penetrating into the constitu- 
tion and qualities of Nature. This, accordingly, shall form the 
next subject of inquiry. 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 



51 



CHAPTEE IY. 

OF THE EXTENT TO WHICH MAN IS ABLE TO DISCOVER THE ULTI- 
MATE ELEMENTS OR ESSENCE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD. 

I have already referred to phrenological works for a list of 
the faculties of the human mind, so far as they have been 
proved to he elementary by observation of the brain. The 
enumeration is not complete, nor are the functions of all of 
them delineated with scientific precision. Improvement is 
expected in both particulars ; but the essential character and 
sphere of activity of each appear to me to be so far ascertained, 
that we may draw inferences from them, which, although lia- 
ble to be modified in consequence of subsequent observation 
and analysis, will probably not be altered in their essential 
aspects. I now proceed to inquire into the extent to which 
these faculties enable us to discover the ultimate elements of 
our own nature and that of the external world. 

In treating of our own nature, let us begin by considering 
the mind. 

1st, I repeat the observation, for it is practically too little 
attended to, that Mind in the sense of spirit, or of an entity 
existing and acting in this world independently of matter, is 
absolutely unknown to us. We are conscious only of mental 
states and acts, and these have been ascertained always to de- 
pend in this life on corresponding conditions and actions of the 
brain. Whether, therefore, we contemplate the beauties of 
external nature, listen to the roar of the cataract, or raise our 
minds to God in the loftiest aspirations of religious adoration, 
a certain cerebral condition is indispensable in this world to 
the experience of the perceptions and emotions. Every phi- 
losophy, and every religion, which ignores this fundamental 
fact of our being, and its consequences (which shall be subse- 
quently explained), is imperfect ; and when it contradicts them 
it is false and injurious. It is in vain to exclaim that this 
fact leads to materialism, and is therefore dangerous. If it 
lead logically to materialism, then materialism must be true; it 
must be an institution of God, and must have been devised 
by His wisdom, and established by His goodness; and there 
would, therefore, be not only folly, but impiety, in rebelling 



52 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

against it. If, on the other hand, it does not lead logically 
to materialism, then the exclamation is groundless, and it is 
our duty to consider to what other logical conclusions it leads ; 
and this shall be done in a subsequent chapter. 

2c%, Our subjective knowledge, or knowledge of ourselves 
derived from consciousness, cannot in this life go beyond the 
limits of the functions of the cerebral organs. A dog cannot by 
any possible course of instruction or communication be made to 
comprehend a question in algebra, the revolution of the globe, 
the beauties of Shakspeare, or the sublime devotional feelings 
inspired by the oratorio of " The Creation." Its mental organs 
are not fitted to reach these conceptions and emotions. In 
like manner, all ideas and emotions which transcend the 
sphere of action of the mental organs of any particular human 
being are inappreciable and inconceivable by him. If the or- 
gan of Tune be very deficient, he cannot perceive or imagine 
melody ; if Veneration be very deficient, he cannot compre- 
hend the nature of the devotional emotion ; and if Conscien- 
tiousness be very deficient, the feeling of justice is equally an 
inscrutable enigma to his mind, although he may possess other 
organs in a high degree. 

3c%, The external world and the constitution of our cere- 
bral organs are adapted to each other. Man appears to be a 
part of a great system, and he, as the rational observer, inter- 
preter, and to some extent the deputed administrator of a por- 
tion of it, cannot correctly appreciate his own position, privi- 
leges, powers, and duties, until he has become acquainted with 
the external world, with himself, and with the reciprocal rela- 
tions between them. One grand element in this knowledge, 
and that which is necessary to render all the others produc- 
tive of happiness, is an intimate and correct knowledge of his 
own constitution, physical and mental ; which, until the func- 
tions of the brain and the nervous system were discovered, it 
was impossible for him to attain. 

We have already seen that we have no consciousness what- 
ever of the substance or essence of the thinking principle ; let 
us now inquire into the extent to which man can discover the 
nature or essence of the external world. 

The means by which we gain knowledge of the external 
world are the external organs of our Senses, and cerebral 
organs. 

The external senses generally recognised are those of Feel- 
ing, Taste, Smell, Hearing, and Sight. Each of these 
senses depends for its power of action on a specific organism, 
which stands in communication, through specific nerves, with 
a particular portion of the brain. All of these parts must be 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 53 

in a state of normal development, health, and efficiency, as 
indispensable conditions of our receiving, through them, cor- 
rect intimations of the external world, and, in some respects, 
of the state of our own internal being. When the conditions do 
not exist, the corresponding perceptions fail to arise ; and when 
they are deranged, the perceptions are impaired, disordered, 
or perverted, according to the extent of the aberration of the 
organs from their normal state. 

The function of the senses is to bring us into communica- 
tion with the external world. We have no consciousness of 
the existence of the organs of sense, or what functions are 
performed by them. We are conscious of hearing, seeing, 
smelling, tasting, and touching ; but in performing these acts 
in a state of health, we neither feel nor perceive the part 
which the organic apparatus plays in executing them. When 
the organs are obstructed, diseased, or impaired, we become 
aware of their influence ; but this is accomplished by acts of 
observation and reflection, and not by our normal intuitive con- 
sciousness. One great advantage of this constitution is that 
our attention is directed at once to the objects to be perceived, 
which are of the chief interest to us ; the organic apparatus 
meanwhile performing its functions unobtrusively but effi- 
ciently, under its Author's care. 

When an external object makes an impression on an organ 
of sense, the organ transmits it to the brain, and by means 
of internal cerebral organs, we perceive the object. Previously 
to every perception, there must be an impression on the or- 
gans of sense ; and the function of these organs appears to 
consist in receiving and transmitting this impression to the 
organs of the internal faculties. Except when excited by an 
external cause, the organs of sense, in a state of health, do not 
transmit any stimulus to the brain; in other words, they do 
not possess the attribute of spontaneous activity. 

The functions of every sense depend on its peculiar organ- 
ism : and no preceding exercise or habit is necessary in order 
to acquire the special power of any sense. The organism of 
each sense performs its functions in consequence of its own 
innate constitution and the relations which it bears to exter- 
nal objects. If it be perfect, the functions are perfect also; and 
if it be diseased, the functions are deranged, notwithstanding 
all previous experience. The relations of each sense are de- 
terminate, and the impressions received are subject to positive 
laws. 

The faculties which take cognizance of the external world, 
and also to some extent of our internal condition, receive the 
impressions made on the senses ; and we proceed to inquire 



54 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

into the kind and extent of the knowledge which they enable 
us to acquire. Each mental power depends on a specific por- 
tion of the brain. When it is wanting, a certain range of 
knowledge is excluded. If the ears and the portion of the 
brain in direct connection with the auditory nerves be perfect, 
we may hear sounds ; but if the organs of Tune be extremely 
deficient, we shall be unable to distinguish those qualities and 
relations of sound which constitute melody. If the eye, the 
optic nerves, and the parts of the brain in which the latter 
terminate, be perfect, we may see the form of objects ; but if 
the organ of Colouring be very deficient, we shall be incapable 
of distinguishing their colours. If the organs of the percep- 
tive faculties be very large and active, their range of percep- 
tion is enlarged and increased in intensity ; but their percep- 
tions cannot pass beyond the limits assigned by their natural 
constitution and established relations. Disease in the organs 
impairs or deranges their functions. 

Sir William Hamilton gives the following account of our 
knowledge of matter. " The necessary constituents," says he, 
" of our notion of matter, the primary qualities of bodies, are 
thus all evolved from the two catholic conditions of matter — 
(1), the occupying space ; and (2), the being contained in 
space. Of these, the former affords (A) trinal extension, 
explicated again into (1), divisibility ; (2), size, contain- 
ing under it density or rarity ; (3), figure ; and (B) ulti- 
mate incompressibility ; while the latter gives (A) mobility, 
and (B) situation/' " The primary qualities of matter thus 
develop themselves out of the original datum of substance oc- 
cupying space/' — (Dissertations, Note D, § 2, in Hamilton's 
edition of Eeid's Collected Writings.) Observations on the 
functions of the brain lead us to a different view. Our belief 
in the existence of substance, seems to me to result from the 
activity of Individuality excited by an external corporeal ob- 
ject; our perception of the form, size, colour, density, resist- 
ance, position in space, divisibility, and mobility of a cor- 
poreal object, are the direct results of the activity of the 
organs of Form, Size, Colour, Weight, Locality, Eventuality, 
and Comparison, excited by certain qualities possessed by 
matter. A few elucidations may be necessary to explain this 
doctrine. 

The faculty of Individuality, gives us the belief of the ex- 
istence of the external world and of ourselves. It forms the 
class of ideas represented by substantive nouns, when used 
without an adjective, as rock, man, horse. When, by means 
of the organs of sense, and the internal perceptive organs, we 
receive impressions of form, colour, size, &c, Individuality 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 55 

produces in us the conviction that the objects making these 
impressions exist ; but here its powers terminate. 

The physical qualities of substances are discovered by means 
of the organs of Form, Size, Weight, Colouring, and Tune. 
Each of these has received a specific constitution, and 
our power of acquiring the perceptions of the qualities to 
which it is related, depends on the degree of perfection 
of the organ. When large, we have strong and clear, when 
small, faint and imperfect, and when diseased, deranged per- 
ceptions. 

These organs cannot discover the essence of the externa 
objects which produce the perceptions of their qualities. They 
give rise merely to the perceptions, and there their functions 
end. The organ of Colouring, for instance, receives from the 
eyes impressions which produce in it perceptions of colour ; 
but it cannot discover what the efficient cause is, why grass 
appears green, gold yellow, and silver white. And so with 
the other organs for the perception of the qualities of external 
bodies. 

These organs are constituted with so specific a relation to 
the qualities and modes of action of physical nature as it now 
exists (in what from its adaptation to these organs, I may be 
allowed to call its normal state), that they would be unfitted 
to a different constitution of physical objects, and would be- 
come useless were even the normal condition of actual nature 
much altered. The weight of the body, and the strength of 
the muscles, are so exactly adapted to the actual force of gra- 
vitation in our globe, that were this force greatly increased, 
our present constitution continuing unchanged, we should 
stick immoveably to the ground ; while, if it were much di- 
minished, we should, by our present muscular efforts in walk- 
ing, bound into the air at every step. The faculty of Weight 
and Momentum is the mental power by means of which we 
estimate, intuitively, the force of gravitation, and adapt our 
muscular efforts to its influence. In a world in which there 
was no gravitation (such as a disembodied spirit may be sup- 
posed to inhabit), this power would be useless. 

In like manner, the organ of Colouring is adapted to a 
scene of existence in which there is light, and to those degrees 
of temperature which exist in this world. Were there no 
light, vision would cease, and colour disappear ; or were the 
temperature of external objects only moderately raised above 
its present standard, most of the beautiful variegated tints of 
nature would vanish. 

The organ of Tune affords, if possible, a still more striking 
example. External objects are endowed with certain powers 



56 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

of vibration. These obey fixed laws, many of which have been 
observed and ascertained. The air has been rendered capable 
of transmitting these vibrations to the ear, and the ear to the 
brain ; and from its excitement, the organ of Tune produces 
those intensely pleasurable perceptions to which we give the 
name of melody. The qualities of the vibrations are adapted 
to our emotional, as well as to our intellectual faculties ; and 
the most rapturous devotion, affection, terror, hope, or pity, 
may be called into existence by strains addressed to the facul- 
ties on which these feelings depend. But again I remark, 
that all this exquisite pleasure is the result of the constitution 
and adaptation of the qualities of things to each other. Change 
the condition of the sonorous body, of the air, of the ear,"or of 
the organ of Tune, and all the effects are changed. How an 
immaterial being could perceive or produce melody is to us 
utterly inconceivable. 

Similar observations may be made in regard to all the facul- 
ties which take cognizance of the qualities of external objects. 
Their organs and external nature are so exactly adapted to 
each other, that a great change in the condition of either, would 
derange or extinguish our existing perceptions. The yellow 
aspect of nature in jaundice is a familiar example ; the inca- 
pacity of a man whose brain is disordered by alcohol to adapt 
himself to the law of gravitation is another ; to which many 
more might be added. One practical inference which may be 
drawn from these facts is, that the more highly the brain is 
developed, it becomes a more powerful instrument for pene- 
trating into the constitution of nature. 

Having considered the existence of physical objects and 
their qualities, we may survey the phenomena which they ex- 
hibit, or their modes of action. The faculty of Eventuality 
observes these, and also the phenomena of our internal being. 
A horse at rest is an object related to Individuality ; a horse in 
motion, to it, and also to Eventuality. This is the faculty which 
comprehends the ideas signified by active and passive verbs. 
Its function is limited to observing phenomena, and it takes no 
cognizance of their causes or consequences, beyond observing 
each consequence as a new phenomenon following after the 
one that preceded it. Eventuality may be used in this manner 
to observe consequences. The lower animals possess it ; a dog, 
for example, that has been accustomed to see game killed by 
means of a gun, will shrink and shew signs of fear when the 
gun is pointed at itself. In this instance, it appears to connect 
the consequence, physical injury, with the explosion of the 
gun, as a mere event ; for we have no reason to believe that 
it comprehends fully the process of causation through which 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 57 

the effect is produced.* In the house of a friend whom I used 
to visit in the country, there was a tame monkey. His sons 
knocked down apples for it from a tree with a bow and arrows ; 
and the monkey had so far observed the connection between 
the use of them and the fall of the apples, that when it saw 
the bow and arrows in the hands of the boys, it used to run to 
the tree and wait in expectation of its repast. By my sug- 
gestion, on a particular day, they did not use them, but laid 
them down beside the monkey and retired. It continued to 
sit and look at them and at the tree, but although its hands 
and arms were adapted to the use of them, it never attempted 
to apply them. An internal faculty, the one which supplies 
the notion of causation, was wanting. The organ of Causa- 
lity, therefore, is necessary to communicate the idea of causa- 
tion ; and there are men in whom it is so deficient, that they 
regard the external world almost exclusively as a collection of 
objects and qualities, exhibiting multifarious phenomena. 
They have no vivid impression of efficiency in the antecedent 
to produce the sequent, and, in consequence, have no compre- 
hension of nature as a scheme or system of reciprocally-adapted 
qualities and modes of action in the objects and beings which 
compose it. This topic will be resumed in treating of the 
faculty of Causality. 

Individuals in whom the organ of Eventuality is deficient, 
are unobservant of phenomena and events. 

As a source of information, Eventuality does not go beyond 
simple observation of action. 

There are faculties which take cognizance of the abstract 
relations of things : These are Locality, Order, Number, 
and Time. Locality is the power by which we take cogni- 
zance of relative position ; Order, of the physical arrange- 
ment of objects; Number, of their numbers; and Time, of 
duration. None of these relate to the qualities of physical 
objects ; but both Order and Number presuppose the existence 
of such objects, to be arranged in space and enumerated. Our 
conceptions of space, number, and time, have no limits. The 
faculties which form these ideas lose themselves in the infi- 
nite. In exercising them we are capable of rising above this 
earth and its qualities ; but when we do venture on such ex- 
cursions, our faculties return freighted with knowledge of only 
one truth — that nature, in its full extent, is unfathomable by 
our feeble powers. 

* The question whether certain species ?.f the higher mammalia do not possess in 
some degree perception of the relation of cause and effect, is attended with difficulty, 
for the elephant, horse, and dog modify their conduct to a certain extent according to 
circumstances ; but none of them applies causes to reach distant results, as man does. 



58 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

The practical point to be kept in view in regard to the facul- 
ties mentioned in the preceding paragraph is, that they con- 
vey to us no knowledge of any object, being, mode of being, 
or event ; but are confined to the formation of abstract ideas 
of space, number, and duration. 

The faculty of Language enables us to invent arbitrary signs 
and sounds, which we associate with external objects, and also 
with internal sensations, perceptions, thoughts, desires, and 
emotions, so as to render them expressive of these to other 
individuals who have been taught to form corresponding as- 
sociations. This faculty has no knowledge of the objects 
themselves which it names. Its functions begin and end in 
giving us the power of inventing, learning, and using words, 
as arbitrary signs of our knowledge and mental states. It is, 
therefore, the source of no new ideas concerning the external 
world, ourselves, or of the relations between us and them. 

It is of importance in relation to the purpose of the present 
treatise to mention, that the signification of words is learned 
through the medium of the faculties which take cognizance 
of the things indicated by them. Thus, if a rose be shewn to 
a child or a native of a foreign country, and the tint be sub- 
mitted to their observation, and the word " red" be uttered as 
expressive of it, they may appreciate its meaning, and after- 
wards use it as a general term indicating that colour. But if 
an individual have been born blind, no definitions, explana- 
tions, or illustrations, will suffice to convey to his mind a con- 
ception of the colour of a rose. He may learn that a rose has 
a quality which persons with perfect senses perceive, but which 
he cannot comprehend, and which they name a red colour ; 
and he may learn to use this term as they use it : but still it 
will remain meaningless to him, except as an intimation of 
his own deficiency in an interesting field of perception. Simi- 
lar observations apply in the case of all the faculties. When 
the organ of Tune is very deficient, the individual cannot com- 
prehend the mental state indicated by the word " melody f 
when he is very deficient in Causality, the impression of the 
link of connection between an event and its antecedent, ex- 
pressed by the word " cause/' does not reach him, let us define 
it to him ever so clearly ; and if Veneration be very deficient, 
neither the emotion produced by that faculty, and named re- 
verence or devotion, nor the mental state indicated by these 
words, can be appreciated by him, and no explanations will 
suffice to convey the meaning of them to his mind. 

When this fact in our constitution becomes familiarly known, 
and when Phrenology has been taught as a department of 
Natural Science, many practical errors in human conduct will 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 59 

cease. In education, language will no longer be held to imply 
knowledge of things, and be taught as a substitute for it. And 
persons very deficient in particular emotional and intellectual 
organs will learn to appreciate their own mental condition in 
these particular departments ; they will recognise that, in re- 
gard to them, they resemble the man born blind in relation to 
the colour of the rose. If the defect be in Veneration, for 
example, they will cease to deny the existence of a natural 
sentiment of devotion ; if it be in Causality, they will not re- 
gard themselves as authorities in denying causation. Or if 
they do, an instructed society, perceiving the deficiencies in 
their organisms, will judge for themselves to what extent it 
is right to ascribe importance to opinions, doctrines, or prac- 
tical projects, proceeding from such defective brains. More- 
over, the converse rule also holds good, viz., The larger an 
organ is, the more favourable the development of the other 
organs with which it is combined, and the higher the tempera- 
ment and the mental cultivation of an individual are, the 
greater will be his power of comprehending and expounding 
the true nature of things ; and therefore the fuller and more 
correct will be the meaning which he will attach to words, 
and the higher authority will he be in indicating their mean- 
ing to others. 

It follows from these premises, that no spoken or written 
communication can extend our previous knowledge of things, 
qualities, and mental states, unless we understand the mean- 
ing of the words in which it is expressed. We all feel this 
when visiting a country, with the language of which we are 
not acquainted. It is exemplified also in addressing, in their 
own languages, illiterate savages on subjects of high moral 
and intellectual importance. The emotions and conceptions 
which constitute the subjects of such discourses are unknown 
to them, partly through great deficiencies in the development 
of their brains, and partly through imperfect civilization. 
Their languages contain no terms expressive of them, and 
hence the speaker cannot convey to them his conceptions and 
emotions, when they transcend the powers of their own lan- 
guages. Moreover, by means of words no communication 
which transcends the sphere of the human faculties can be 
rendered comprehensible to any body. 

The last class of faculties by means of which we gain know- 
ledge of the external world and of ourselves, are the Keflec- 
tive Powers. _ These are Comparison and Causality. They 
produce certain abstract ideas, and minister to the gratifica- 
tion of all the other faculties. 

Comparison enables us to compare objects, and also feelings 



60 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

and thoughts, and to discover their resemblances, differences, 
and analogies. The faculty of Tune may compare different 
notes, but it takes no account of colours, and cannot, there- 
fore, compare a tone and a tint. Comparison appears to do 
so, and to discriminate their analogies and to decide on their 
harmonies or discords. "When the organ is large and active, 
it gives high powers of discrimination in these relations; when 
small, there is a corresponding deficiency in this talent. 

This faculty does not introduce us to any new qualities of 
objects or things. It enables us to discern their relations, 
and, aided by Causality, to observe their adaptations. For 
example, when by means of the faculties before named we 
have discovered the existence and qualities of the eyes and of 
the sun, this faculty and Causality discern certain relations 
between them, and give rise to the perception of the adapta- 
tion of the one to the other. Although the relations which 
Comparison and Causality perceive are not things, and the 
faculties may therefore be said to form only abstract ideas, 
yet the relations and adaptations themselves are real, and the 
knowledge of them is indispensable to human well-being. 
Without this knowledge man would be a creature of a lower 
grade.* 

THE FACULTY OF CAUSALITY. 

Dr Thomas Brown, in defining a cause, says : " A cause, in 
the fullest definition which it philosophically admits, may be 
said to be that which immediately precedes any change, and 
which, existing at any time in similar circumstances, has been 
always, and will be always, immediately followed by a similar 
change. Priority in the sequence observed, and invariableness 
of antecedence in the past and future sequences supposed, are 
the elements, and the only elements, combined in the notion 
of a cause/' This appears to me to be a definition by means 
of Individuality and Eventuality, of the function of Causality, 
and to be incomplete. When we treat of a primitive power 
of the mind, all that we can do is to describe it, to state the 
objects to which it is related, and to give it a name. We 
cannot, by means of a definition, enable a person who never 
experienced its activity, to understand what it is. The defi- 
nition of Dr Brown describes, with sufficient accuracy, the 

* Mr H. C. Watson, in an able essay published in the Phrenological Journal, vol. vi. 
p. 389, suggests, that the simple function of Comparison is probably " a perception of 
conditions ;*' and in this view Dr Vimont coincides. Dr Spurzheim dissented, and 
maintained the views given in the text. A brief outline of the facts and arguments by 
which their respective views are supported is given in the System of Phrenology, vol. 
ii. p. 156. 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 



61 



circumstances in which the notion of causation is excited; but 
it does not indicate what seems to me to be the chief idea of 
a cause, and which is derived from another primitive mental 
faculty. In addition to the invariable sequence which Event- 
uality perceives, a notion of power or efficiency in the ante- 
cedent to produce the consequent, appears to me to arise in 
the mind, when contemplating instances of causation ; and 
this notion is formed by means of the organ of Causality. 

We have no knowledge of substance, except as it is unfolded 
to us in its qualities ; yet we have a firm conviction that sub- 
stance exists. We see only sequence in causation ; yet we 
have an irresistible conviction that something exists in the 
antecedent having power to produce the consequent. Indivi- 
duality gives the first, and Causality the second conviction, 
and both give belief in the existence of something, the essen- 
tial nature of which is unknown. 

It is said, that it is only by experience, or by observing the 
invariableness of the sequence, that we discover the connec- 
tion of cause and effect ; and this is true : but in this respect 
Causality does not differ from the other faculties. Caloric, as 
existing in nature, is one thing, and the sensation of heat 
produced by it in the human body is another. Before we can 
experience the sensation, heat must be applied to the nerves ; 
but even after the sensation has been felt, we know nothing 
about what caloric is in itself, or how it comes to have the 
quality of causing the sensation. All that we discover is, that 
caloric, be it what it may, exists ; and that it is capable of 
producing certain effects on matter, and of exciting in the 
living body that peculiar feeling which we name heat or 
warmth. The same holds in regard to Causality. Before we 
can know the existence of a cause, it must manifest itself by 
producing an effect. The application of caloric to the nerves 
produces the feeling of heat ; and the presentment of an in- 
stance of causation excites in Causality the notion that a cause 
exists. A great deficiency of this organ renders the intellect 
nearly blind to causation, and unfits it for forming compre- 
hensive and consecutive views of the causes of events. A 
person in whom the organ of Tune is very deficient, cannot 
perceive melody at all ; one in whom it is better developed, 
but still small, perceives melody while a musical instrument 
is sounding, and he may enjoy it and judge of its qualities 
from the impression it makes ; but he will be unable to recal 
a note when the instrument has ceased to act, which a person 
with a high development of the organ can do. In like man- 
ner, an individual in whom Causality is very deficient, sees 
two events occur that are actually related to each other as 



62 CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 

cause and effect, and yet he forms no notion of this connec- 
tion ; they appear to him simply as two events, one succeed- 
ing the other. If the organ be a little larger, but still small, 
he may have the notion of causation while he sees the pheno- 
mena, but he will be unable to recal the idea when they have 
ceased to appear, and he will experience no desire to investi- 
gate the relation between them, as one of causation. When 
we state a logical argument to men thus constituted, they 
perceive the steps of it as we proceed, and if it be sound they 
will acquiesce in our conclusions, and they may remember 
these as matters of fact; but they will be as incapable of re- 
calling and restating the different links of the chain of reason- 
ing as the person deficient in Tune is of reproducing the notes 
which he has heard. At the bar, such persons are incapable 
of making a reply, because their brains cannot retain and 
reproduce, with a view to refuting, the arguments of their 
opponent. In science, they extol the all-importance of facts, 
and depreciate hypothesis and theory ; while in morals and 
religion they imperfectly, and with difficulty, penetrate to 
motives and causes of action. Another effect of great defi- 
ciency in the organ is an incapacity in the individual to bring 
the future results of existing causes home to his present con- 
sciousness. In consequence of this incapacity he lives in the 
present. Being incapable of tracing the connection of causes 
with effects, he does not appreciate those which are calcu- 
lated to produce distant good ; the good itself, therefore, is 
regarded by him as speculative or visionary; it does not inte- 
rest him, and he confines his efforts to the attainment by 
direct means of immediate objects. He calls himself a prac- 
tical man, and, being unaware of his own mental deficiency, 
is prone to underrate the judgment of those who are able to 
see farther than himself. When, on the contrary, the organ 
of Causality is large, active, and well-cultivated, causation is 
perceived to pervade the system of nature so far as it is known 
by man. 

We are now prepared to consider some points which have 
occasioned great and animated discussions among the meta- 
physical writers of the old schools. It has been stated, that 
Individuality takes cognizance of objects that exist. A tree, 
a ship, a mountain, are presented to our view, and ideas or 
perceptions of them are formed ; and the perception is fol- 
lowed by an intuitive belief in their existence. Bishop Berke- 
ley objects to the belief in their existence as unphilosophical; 
because, says he, the perception or idea is a mere mental af- 
fection, and no reason can be assigned, why an external object 
must be believed to exist, merely because we experience a 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 



63 



mental affection. A smell, for example, is nothing more than 
a certain impression on the mind, communicated through the 
olfactory nerves. But no necessary connection can be per- 
ceived between this affection, and belief in the existence of a 
rose: the mind may undergo the affection called a smell, just as 
it experiences the emotion called joy, and a material object may 
have as little to do in causing the one as the other. Hence 
Dr Berkeley concluded, that we have philosophical evidence 
for the existence only of mind and mental affections, and none 
for the existence of the material world. Hume carried this 
argument farther, and maintained, that as we are conscious 
only of ideas, and as the existence of ideas does not neces- 
sarily imply the existence of mind, we have philosophical evi- 
dence for the existence of ideas only, and none for that of 
either matter or mind. Dr Keid answered Berkeley's objec- 
tion by maintaining, that the belief in external objects, conse- 
quent on perceiving them, is intuitive, and hence requires no 
reason for its support. 

Phrenology enables us to refer these different speculations 
to their sources in the different faculties. Individuality (aided 
by the other perceptive faculties), in virtue of its constitu- 
tion, perceives external objects, and its action is accompa- 
nied by intuitive belief in their existence. But Berkeley em- 
ployed the faculty of Causality to discover why it is that this 
perception is followed by belief ; and because Causality could 
give no account of the matter, and could see no necessary con- 
nection between the mental affection called perception, and 
the existence of external nature, he denied that that nature 
exists. Dr Keid's answer, translated into phrenological lan- 
guage, was simply this: — The cognizance of the existence of 
the outward world belongs to Individuality : Individuality has 
received its own constitution and its own functions, and can- 
not legitimately be called on to explain or account for these 
to Causality. In virtue of its constitution, it perceives the 
existence of external objects, and belief in that existence fol- 
lows ; and if Causality cannot see how this happens, it is a 
proof that Causality's powers are limited, but not that Indi- 
viduality is deceitful in its indications. 

Another class of philosophers, by an error springing from 
an analogous source, have denied causation. When Event- 
uality contemplates circumstances connected by the relation of 
cause and effect, it perceives only one event following another 
in immediate and invariable sequence. For example, if a 
cannon be fired, and the shot knock down a wall, Individual- 
ity and some other perceptive faculties observe only the ex- 
istence and appearance of the powder. Eventuality perceives 



64 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 



the fire applied to it, the explosion, and the fall of the build- 
ing, as events following in succession ; but it forms no idea of 
power in the gunpowder, when ignited, to produce the effect. 
When Causality, on the other hand, is joined with Eventuality 
in contemplating these phenomena, the impression of power 
or efficiency in the exploding gunpowder to produce the effect, 
arises spontaneously in the mind, and Causality produces an 
intuitive belief in the existence of this efficiency, just because 
it is its constitution to do so ; and it is as absurd for Event- 
uality to deny the existence of some quality in the powder 
which gives rise to this feeling, because only Causality per- 
ceives it, as for Causality to deny the existence of the exter- 
nal world, because only Individuality perceives it. 

There is no reason to believe that the qualities and relations 
of external nature, made known to man through these facul- 
ties, embrace all that it possesses. Indeed, the reverse is ob- 
viously the fact. Individuality reveals to us only the exist- 
ence of substance, and we possess no faculty for discovering 
its essence or ultimate nature. The researches of chemists 
lead us to believe in the existence of atoms obeying certain 
laws of attraction and repulsion, as the ultimate form in which 
matter exists ; but this is mere matter of inference. No one 
has yet seen or felt these atoms in their individual state ; and 
even although this point were reached, the problems of their 
essence, — of the causes which have produced them and en- 
dowed them with their properties of attraction and repulsion,— 
and the nature of these powers of attraction and repulsion, would 
still remain to be solved. The faculty of Causality, as we have 
seen, affords no aid in penetrating into these mysteries. It 
appreciates only the existence of the powers which the sup- 
posed atoms manifest, and, from these manifestations, connects 
them in its own conceptions with their effects. But it is quite 
conceivable that a being endowed with additional and higher 
faculties than man possesses, might be capable of penetrating 
more deeply into the arcana of nature than we. The monkey, 
from wanting organs of Causality, cannot comprehend the cau- 
sation embodied in external nature, and cannot profit by ap- 
plying it to his own advantage as man does. A being endowed 
with faculties which should enable him to perceive intuitively 
the nature and relations of physical objects and beings, might 
not only perceive every thing at a glance which man can learn 
only by multiplied observations and experience, but he might 
thereby acquire a power of combining and applying the forces of 
nature far transcending that assigned to the human race. Man, 
apparently, is only entering on his career in this world as a 



CAN MAN DISCOVER THE ESSENCE OF MATTER ? 65 

moral and intellectual being, and commencing his studies of Na- 
ture, and the application of her powers. Future investigations 
may add incalculably to his knowledge and power ; but we 
may safely predict that no part of that knowledge will differ in 
kind from what we now possess, or go beyond the limits of the 
faculties which have been bestowed on him. New organs in 
the brain may be discovered for mental powers of which we 
are conscious, such as the perception of heat and cold, rough- 
ness and smoothness, and others ; but no new mental powers 
themselves could be added to our present endowment without 
changing our nature. Add Causality equal to man's to the dog, 
and it would on longer be a dog. Give us faculties capable 
of discovering the ultimate nature and relations of things, and 
we should cease to be human beings. 

If the foregoing considerations be well founded, they ap- 
pear to shew that man is constituted with a special reference 
to the existing state of the physical world, and that it is 
framed with a corresponding relation to his endowments ; 
whence the inference seems to follow that practically, the 
sphere of his duties, and the fountains of his sufferings and 
enjoyments, will, to a great extent, be found by studying, 
comprehending, and acting in conformity with these arrange- 
ments. Moreover, as these are divine institutions, they, and 
the consequences that flow from them, may be regarded as 
forming a sacred woof which may, with great advantage, be 
woven into the warp of our religious emotions, and thus be 
made to constitute the texture of a natural religion. Dp they 
not also set boundaries to our powers of receiving the reve- 
lation of supernatural truths, and go deep into the question as 
to the capacity of our nature, as it is now constituted, for ex- 
isting in a state of being different from that which prevails in 
this world ? The late Dr Chalmers appears to have had some 
glimpses of this inference, for I heard him preach an eloquent 
discourse, subsequently published, the object of which was to 
shew that there must be a new earth, as well as new heavens, 
for the future abode of man, to afford scope for the exercise 
and enjoyment of his natural faculties ; in other words, that 
his existence in a sphere in which there is no matter, would 
imply a radical change of his whole nature — not simply his re- 
production as man, with his capacities purified and enlarged, 
but amounting to the substitution of a new and different being 
in his place. 



E 



66 



OF GOD. 



CHAPTEE V. 
OF GOD. 

The highest object to which the religious emotions of any 
people are directed, constitutes their God. When their notions 
concerning that object are combined with the religious emotions, 
the object becomes sacred, is hallowed and adored ; and these 
opinions become the grand foundation of the rest of their 
faith. The natural mental process by which ideas of God 
have been formed appears to be the following. The facul- 
ties of Wonder and Veneration give us a tendency intuitively 
to believe in a supernatural cause of the remarkable phenomena 
of nature which we see and feel, but cannot comprehend. The 
faculties of Individuality and Imitation prompt us intuitively 
to personify abstract ideas and active powers. The Greeks 
and .Romans, unable to account scientifically for the cause of 
the winds, ascribed it to a supernatural power, personified it, 
and. called it iEolus, or the God of the Winds. Roused to 
admiration by the teeming fertility of the soil, and unable to 
comprehend its cause, they attributed it also to a supernatural 
power, and personified it ; and as, in the animal economy, the 
producer is feminine, they were led by analogy to invest it 
with this sex ; hence arose the Goddess Ceres. These nations 
multiplied deities to represent the causes of all the interesting 
and impressive phenomena of nature of which they could give 
no other account, including human passions, emotions, and 
intellectual powers. Mars was the God of War, the personi- 
fication of Combativeness and Destructiveness ; Minerva the 
Goddess of Wisdom, the personification of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect ; and so forth. 

These notions being entwined in youth with the religious 
emotions of the people, became religious truths, and led to 
important results. First — They diverted the national mind 
from inquiring into the natural causes of the phenomena, 
which they accounted for by ascribing them to the agency of 
these supernatural powers ; and hence, when evil overtook 
them, such as famine, or shipwreck, or pestilence, they ascribed 
it to the displeasure of Ceres, or of iEolus, or of Jupiter. 
Instead of endeavouring to remove its natural causes, or to 



OF GOD. 



67 



use measures to protect themselves, as far as possible, against 
their influence, they sought to discover why the supernatural 
Power was offended, and how it might be appeased, and its 
favour secured; and ascribing to it their own passions and 
emotions, they sacrificed animals and occasionally men to as- 
suage its anger, and offered incense, sang praises, and pre- 
sented gifts, to gratify its senses and its Love of Approbation. 

Secondly — These errors having become sacred, prompted 
the people to regard every one who desired to deliver them 
from their superstitions as a blasphemer and contemner of 
the Gods, and to slay him. 

The Jews were taught higher conceptions of the great su- 
pernatural Power named God. Their Scriptures represent 
Him as existing in the form of a Man ; for we are told that 
God made man after his own image, which implies that God 
had a form like the human ; and it is narrated that, on one 
occasion, Moses saw a portion of God's person like the hinder 
parts of a man. Moreover, the Jewish Scriptures ascribe to 
God human passions : He is angry, jealous, revengeful, capable 
of being moved from his object by entreaty, and pleased with 
praise, sacrifices, and incense. Along with these qualities they 
ascribe to Him the sublimest attributes which the human 
faculties can conceive : Unity, eternal existence, ubiquity, 
omniscience, omnipotence, and all the human virtues. 

These ideas of God were woven into the religious emotions 
of the Jewish people, and became the foundation of their reli- 
gion. They were greatly superior to those of the Greeks and 
Eomans, and of other contemporaneous nations ; and this su- 
periority has been one natural cause why the Jews have main- 
tained themselves as a distinct people after their expulsion 
from Judea, when living in society with the professors of all 
the other creeds of the world. 

Mahometan writers recognise, to some extent, the distinc- 
tion between theology and religion, and name the first Imdn, 
and the second Din. Mahomet was the founder of this faith, and 
he appears to have borrowed his ideas of God from the Jews. 
He " emphatically proclaims that there is but one God, the 
Creator and Governor of the universe — omnipresent, eternal, 
omniscient, omnipotent — most holy, wise, good, and merciful." 
In the Koran, we find these words : — " God ! there is no God 
but he, the living, the self-subsisting ; . . . he knoweth that 
which is past, and that which is to come ; . . . his throne is 
extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both 
is no burden to him. He is the high and mighty/' (Koran 
ch. vi.) And again : "He hath spread the earth as a bed for 
you, and the heaven as a covering ; and hath caused water to 

e 2 



68 



OF GOD. 



descend from heaven, and thereby produced fruits for your sus- 
tenance. ... He directeth whom he pleaseth into the right 
way. God knoweth that which ye do ; . . . and whether ye 
manifest that which is in your minds, or conceal it, God will 
call you to account for it, and will forgive whom he pleaseth, 
and will punish whom he pleaseth ; for God is almighty. Your 
God is one God ; there is no God but he — the most merciful." 
{Koran, ch. ii.) 

" In the creed of Islam, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity 
is distinctly repudiated. In the Mahometan Confession of 
Faith, it is declared, ' As he never begot any person whatso- 
ever, so he himself was begotten by none : as he never was a 
son, so he never hath been a father/ 

" In their search after the true ideal of the Divine nature, 
the faithful are directed to the works of creation and the be- 
nign agencies of providence — to the sun and stars, to the clouds, 
to the rain and winds, and their vivifying influences on the 
animal and vegetable world — as ' signs to people of under- 
standing/ {Koran, ch. ii.) But, looking to the mutability 
and the limited existence and duration of all mere earthly and 
sensible objects, idolatry and creature-worship are denounced, 
as suggesting low and unworthy ideas of the Divine nature 
and character. ' Whatever rises/ says the Koran, ' must 
set ; whatever is born, must die ; and whatever is corruptible, 
must decay and perish/ (Ch. vi.) On such grounds, the wor- 
ship of saints and images, and the use of pictorial or other re- 
presentations of living things, was strictly forbidden. 

" The belief in angels, which from time immemorial had been 
universal throughout the East, was adopted into the creed of 
Islam. 

" As to the Koran, Mahometans were required to believe that 
it was not the work of the Prophet himself, but that it was an 
emanation from ' the very essence of God ;' that it was pre- 
served from all eternity, near the throne of God, on a vast 
table, called ' The preserved Table,' on which were also in- 
scribed the Divine decrees, relating to all events, both past 
and future ; and that the angel Gabriel was sent down with a 
transcript from it to the lowest heaven, from whence he re- 
vealed it to Mahomet, from time to time, in successive portions, 
as circumstances required. A view, however, of the entire 
volume of Scripture, bound in silk, and adorned with precious 
stones, was vouchsafed to the Prophet once a-year ; and during 
the last year of his life he was twice indulged with that privi- 
lege/'* 

The notions of God, before quoted, form the great foundation 

* Cyclopaedia of Religious Denominations. 



OF GOD. 



69 



of the Mahometan religion. The doctrines and practices of 
the Koran derive their sanctity from being believed to be re- 
velations of His will. Some of these doctrines harmonize with 
the order of God's natural providence, but many of them are 
at variance with it ; and the whole being entwined with the 
religious emotions in the minds of the people, the two form 
together their religion. 

Observations similar to those already made in regard to the 
religions of Greece and Rome apply to this faith. It averts 
the Mahometan mind from inquiring into the course of God's 
natural providence, paralyzes the intellect by limiting the 
scope of its pursuits, diverts the moral and religious emotions 
from their highest objects, and renders sacred every error 
which the Koran contains. It thus constitutes a huge barrier 
to progressive civilization. 

Mahometans propagate their religion by the sword, and suc- 
ceed. They force the parents in the conquered nations to allow 
their children to be taught religion by the Mahometan priests. 
These find little difficulty in entwining the Koran with the religi- 
ous emotions of the young, and in one generation produce many 
sincere believers in the imposed faith. These are constantly 
augmenting, until the whole people become Mahometans. 

The Christian religion overthrew the religion of Greece and 
Rome, and took its place. In the age when this happened, 
little natural science existed; printing had not been invented, 
books were scarce and dear, and the mass of the people could 
neither read nor write. In Italy, the clergy introduced into 
the Christian worship the use of pictures, in which were re- 
presented God the Father, under the form of an old man ; 
Jesus Christ the Son, as a young man ; and the Holy Spirit 
as a dove ; and they trained the people to regard these three 
as one, the only true God. They ascribed attributes and offices 
to each of these persons, founded on interpretations of Scrip- 
ture ; and these notions constitute the general Christian 
opinion of God. They entwined them with the religious 
emotions, and thus formed them into important elements of 
the Christian faith. 

They also led the emotions to reverence the Scriptures as the 
only revelation of the Divine will ; but they did not trust the 
people with the sacred books themselves. They formed dog- 
mas out of them, and trained the people to reverence these as 
an epitome, and as correct interpretations, of the sacred vo- 
lume. Moreover, the Roman Catholic clergy assured the 
people that the true meaning of Scripture was, in some in- 
stances, obscure ; that, in their state of unavoidable ignorance, 
they might err in their interpretations of it and peril their 



70 



or GOD. 



souls ; that the Pope and assembled clergy were far better 
judges of its import ; and thus they persuaded the laity to 
dispense with the exercise of their own judgment, and to accept, 
reverence, and believe whatever the clergy represented to 
them to be Divine truth. 

Great knowledge of human nature was displayed in this 
proceeding. In a barbarous age, the emotions were neces- 
sarily much more powerful than the intellect, and by autho- 
ritatively presenting to them images and dogmas, and ren- 
dering these sacred by entwining them with the emotions, 
the clergy constituted this compound, religion. By excluding 
the privilege of private judgment, they aimed at securing per- 
fect unity of faith and doctrine in the church, and conferring 
repose of mind on the individual believer. 

Had it been possible to maintain the intellect of the laity 
permanently in the condition in which it was when this sys- 
tem of religion was founded, and had the clergy abstained 
from violating their own precepts in their practical conduct, 
the Roman Catholic faith might have had an indefinite ex- 
istence over Europe. But the invention of printing conferred 
on the people the power of reading, and this roused their intel- 
lectual faculties, and prompted them to inquire into the ac- 
cordance of their religion with Scripture ; while the dissolute 
character of the clergy at the same time, shocked their moral 
faculties, and a reformation of religious doctrine and obser- 
vances ensued. 

The Eeformers continued to preserve the association be- 
tween the Scriptures and the religious emotions of the people 
unbroken, and recognised these writings as Divine revelation ; 
but they asserted the right of the laity to read and interpret 
the Bible for themselves. They abolished the use of images 
and pictures, and dissolved the connection between these and 
the religious emotions. The only intellectual object which the 
leaders of the Beformation at first presented to the laity, as a 
substratum for their religious emotions, was the Scriptures. 
If the right of private judgment had been intended to be a 
reality, they should have left every Christian to extract the 
true meaning of the sacred volume for himself, and to com- 
bine it with his own religious emotions, and thus to constitute 
an individual religion. This would have been the infallible 
result of consistent action on their own principles ; because, 
as no two individuals possess the intellectual and emotional 
organs developed in precisely the same degree of absolute and 
relative size, men's natural powers of interpreting Scripture 
differ, while differences in cultivation and literary and histo- 
rical acquirements also lead to variety of interpretations. 



OF GOD. 



71 



The importance of this remark will be more readily appre- 
ciated when we consider that the Bible contains no system of 
theology, bnt is composed chiefly of narratives, descriptions, 
sublime effusions of devotional emotion, and much sound mo- 
rality, bound together by no striking logical connection. 

The leaders of the Keformation were not slow to perceive 
the consequences of this state of things. To found a sect, a 
series of dogmas must be extracted from the Bible, and the 
religious emotions must be trained to accept and reverence 
them as religious truths. The Keformers carried this prin- 
ciple into practice, framed epitomes of Scriptural doctrine, and 
taught the laity to believe in them as sound manuals of Di- 
vine revelation. 

The present religions of Europe consist of dogmas compiled, 
or deduced in distant ages, from the Bible, by men ignoran- 
of natural science and of the real order of the Divine governt 
ment on earth. These have been intertwined, from genera- 
tion to generation, with the religious emotions, and are all 
sacred in the eyes of believers. So completely is this the case, 
that when a clergyman is accused of preaching heresy, he is 
not allowed to appeal to the Scriptures to prove the soundness 
of his views ; but his doctrine is tried by the standards of his 
church, and he is condemned if he has deviated from their 
text, whatever the Scriptures may prove to the contraiy. 

We read the Koran with our intellect alone ; and in con- 
sequence of our religious emotions never having been inter- 
twined with its text, it bears no aspect of sacredness to us. 
On the other hand, we find great difficulty in reading the 
Bible, and our religious formulas, with our intellect alone ; be- 
cause our religious emotions have been trained from our infancy 
to venerate the former as Divine revelation, and the latter 
as true interpretations of it. When the Mahometan reads the 
Bible, he judges of it by his intellect, or tries it by the Koran ; 
and finding in it some parts like his own sacred standard, he 
approves of these, but finding other portions in discord with 
it, these he condemns. The Mahometan will never judge 
soundly of the Koran until he becomes capable of trying it by 
his intellect alone, and comparing it with the laws of God 
inscribed in the Book of Nature. When he shall become 
capable of this comparison, he will accept as Divine only such 
of its doctrines as harmonize with natural truth. 

In a future chapter 1 shall inquire to what extent our 
Christian formulas are aiding or impeding our civilization ; 
meantime I cast no imputation on the compilers of these for- 
mulas. They are not chargeable with disrespect to God in 
omitting to direct the religious emotions to His works and 



72 



OF GOD. 



agency in nature ; because at the time -when they wrote, there 
were few expositions of these deserving the name of science, 
or worthy of being combined with the religious emotions and 
rendered sacred. And even now I have no charge to pre- 
fer against the clergy who still fail to teach the sacred cha- 
racter of nature, and who conscientiously substitute these dog- 
mas in its place, although in many respects at variance with 
what appears to me to be the order of God's moral government 
of the world ; because, until the functions of the brain, and 
the dependence of moral phenomena on these, were known, 
they had no adequate natural standard by which to try the 
truth and utility of their dogmas. No charity, however, can 
absolve them from the duty of inquiring into the facts now 
presented to their consideration, and giving effect to their 
legitimate consequences. 

We have hitherto considered the Greek and Eoman notions 
of God derived from the simple suggestions of the human 
faculties acting in the absence of scientific knowledge of 
nature ; and also those derived by other nations from books 
believed by them to be Divine. We may now briefly inquire 
into the opinions concerning God which may be legitimately 
drawn from nature in the present state of our knowledge. 

The first difficulty that meets us in this inquiry arises from 
the depth to which, during our whole lives, our religious emo- 
tions have been imbued with dogmatic ideas on the subject. 
Notions concerning the existence and attributes of God were 
impressed upon us by our mothers and nurses at the first dawn 
of our intelligence ; were multiplied and ingrained in us in our 
youth by perusal of the Scriptures, and instruction in cate- 
chisms and articles of faith ; and enforced in adult life by the 
pulpit, the press, and the general voice of society. To unravel 
the threads of this religious web, and to discover how many of 
them we owe to God's revelations of Himself in His works, and 
how many to human instruction ; and moreover to discrimi- 
nate the real title of the threads of human construction to form 
parts of the web of belief at all, may baffle the acutest un- 
derstanding. Nevertheless, if we direct our attention to the 
Hindoo, Mahometan, or any other false religion, we shall have 
little difficulty in perceiving how important it would be to 
succeed in such an analysis of their notions of God, with a 
view to redeeming them from the practical consequences of 
their erroneous opinions concerning His nature and His will. 
The errors in doctrine of the Koran, when evolved into prac- 
tice as the will and command of God, are sources of innumer- 
able temporal evils in Mahometan society, with which reason 



OF GOD. 



73 



and experience endeavour in vain to cope. Could we shed 
into the Mahometan's mind a clear perception of those among 
his opinions which harmonize with views of God and of His 
mode of governing the world, correctly drawn from the study 
of His works, and enable it to distinguish these from the other 
portions which rest on the authority of Mahomet, we should 
make some progress towards his release from the supersti- 
tions that are degrading his faculties and impeding his civili- 
zation. 

There is reason to believe that a similar process of analysis 
of the threads of their faith might benefit the European nations 
also ; because nothing is more certain than that although all 
profess to derive their views of God and of His will from Scrip- 
ture, not only do nations and sects, but individuals also of the 
same sect, differ widely from each other in their opinions re- 
garding these momentous subjects. Every one, therefore, can- 
not be holding the truth ; and error developed into practice must 
lead to disaster in Europe, as certainly as in Turkey or Hin- 
dostan. Let us, therefore, at least attempt to discover what 
lessons unaided nature teaches us in regard to this question. 

There are two opinions regarding the natural sources of our 
belief in the existence of God — one, that it is intuitive ; and 
he other, that it is a deduction of reason. In Chapter IV. , p. 54, 
I have endeavoured to shew that the organs of our senses, and 
those of our mental faculties, are adapted, by their inherent 
constitution, to external nature, and that it is in virtue of the 
powers bestowed on them, and of this adaptation, that we ar- 
rive at intuitive belief in the existence and qualities of exter- 
nal objects. Reason may assist us in examining and analysing 
the circumstances in which these intuitive convictions arise, 
but it cannot account for them. In the science of Optics, for 
example, we find expositions of the compound nature of light, 
and of the kinds of surfaces which reflect the green rays, and 
cause these objects to appear to us green ; of others that re- 
flect the red rays, and are seen by us as red, and so forth ; but 
we see no necessary connection between the appearances of 
these surfaces and their power to reflect different rays, or be- 
tween these rays and our own mental perceptions of colour. 
Our perceptions, and the convictions which attend them, are 
pure intuitions, and are the results simply of the constitution 
of our faculties and their adaptations to external nature, 

Now, it appears to me that by the constitution of the men- 
tal faculties, particularly those of Wonder, Veneration, and 
Ideality, and their relations to external objects, belief in a 
supernatural Power arises intuitively in the mind of an indi- 
vidual possessing a well-constituted brain, from the perception 



74 



OF GOD. 



and comprehension of the qualities, phenomena, and relations 
of the outward world. Eeason may investigate the circum- 
stances under which this intuitive belief arises, and extend 
and deepen it ; but it is not its source. This view is fortified 
by the fact that we find the existence of a supernatural power 
recognised by all the races of men whose brains are even mo- 
derately developed in the organs before named, however igno- 
rant of science they may be. 

The qualities or attributes of this Power are deductions of 
reason, and nations and individuals view these differently, ac- 
cording to the differences that exist in the development of 
their brains, or in their intellectual cultivation. Kevelation 
forms no exception to this rule. The nature of God (Unity 
or Trinity), and His attributes, are apprehended differently by 
different minds, all drawing their conclusions from Scripture. 
Some believe that the First Person of the Trinity possesses 
qualities that rendered it indispensable for Him to demand the 
sacrifice of the Second Person as the sole condition on which 
He could forgive the sins of mankind; while others consider 
this to be an erroneous interpretation of Scripture concerning 
the character of God. Many other discordant views of the 
Divine nature and attributes are known to prevail even among 
the sincerest Christians ; and these shew that the Bible does 
not protect us from forming different opinions of its import 
when differences exist in the development of our brains and 
in our intellectual cultivation. 

The manner in which reason may throw light on the cir- 
cumstances in which our intuitive belief in God arises may 
now be considered. 

If the definition of a cause given by Dr Thomas Brown, 
namely, that " priority in the sequence observed, and in- 
variableness of antecedence in the past and future sequences 
supposed, are the elements, and the only elements, com- 
bined in the notion of a cause," be correct, it appears to me 
to be impossible to elucidate or strengthen by reason our in- 
tuitive belief in the existence of a God. On that supposi- 
tion, the whole external world will exhibit only a succession 
of phenomena. However regular the sequences may be, and 
for however long a period they may have been observed, no- 
thing seems to be implied in mere sequence that indicates any- 
thing beyond the phenomena themselves, and the circum- 
stances in which they occur. 

When, however, as formerly remarked, the organ of Cau- 
sality is largely developed in an individual, the perception of 
antecedence and sequence in phenomena is accompanied by a 
mental state additional to that described by Dr Brown ; viz., 



OF GOD. 



75 



a belief, intuitive and irresistible, that, in the antecedent, there 
exists a quality of power or efficiency to produce the sequent. 
The proper function of Causality is to produce this belief, and 
it is only when the antecedent is thus viewed that it can pro- 
perly be called a cause. There may be complex antecedents 
to one effect, but on analysing them, we recognise those only 
as causes in which we discern active power. Everything else 
belongs to the category of circumstances. 

Let any one, for example, observe the appearances of the 
clouds as they float along a summer sky, borne onward by a 
gentle breeze, and let him note their forms, colours, magnitude, 
and density, and try to draw conclusions regarding the succes- 
sion of forms or other attributes, which will characterize the 
clouds floating on a similar breeze to-morrow. Here, there 
are antecedents and subsequents in abundance ; but we soon 
discover that the clouds exhibiting these phenomena do not 
enable us to draw conclusions in regard to the succession of 
future clouds. The reason of our hesitation is, that we have 
no belief of the antecedent cloud being the cause of the cha- 
racteristics of the one that succeeds it. There is the absence 
of that regularity in the sequence which indicates the relation 
of cause and effect ; but it is not the mere absence of this 
order which we recognise, — its absence suggests the thought 
that the antecedent cloud is not the cause of the appearances of 
the subsequent one, and we are prompted to search deeper, in 
order to discover what the cause is. We may discover sub- 
stances, agents, or forces, such as are treated of in the science 
of Meteorology, more adequate to produce the effects. As 
formerly observed, however, Causality appears to produce only 
a belief in efficiency, without giving us a notion of the nature 
of the efficient cause ; just as Individuality and the other ob- 
serving faculties seem to produce in us a belief that matter 
exists, without revealing to us its essence or origin. 

The mental process by which conviction of intelligence in a 
cause is attained may be illustrated by referring again, even 
at the expense of repetition, to the sun and the eye as an ex- 
ample. These objects exist, and the one is obviously adapted 
to the other ; the sun to give light, and the eye to receive it, 
modify it, and thus enable us to see. The eye and sun did 
not arrange this relationship themselves. If these are con- 
templated, no necessary connection can be perceived between 
the two. There is nothing in the sun that necessarily implies 
the existence of eyes ; and nothing in the eye that necessarily 
implies the existence of the sun. Nevertheless, the relation- 
ship of adaptation exists between them. Comparison and 
Causality, if adequately developed, cannot ascribe adaptation 



76 



OF GOD. 



to either of the two structures, because both are required to 
render it possible. The adaptation, therefore, not being an at- 
tribute of either, and yet the perception of it being called forth 
in the mind by the contemplation of the objects, the hypothe- 
sis of the existence of an intelligence external to both the eye 
and the sun, which instituted it, seems alone capable of account- 
ing for it. All nature is full of adaptations. The structure of the 
lungs is adapted* to the air, and that of the muscles to the force 
of gravitation; the structure of plants is adapted at once to the 
sun, the air, and the soil ; and so forth. Causality and Com- 
parison, therefore, are furnished with such innumerable ex- 
amples of what appear to them to be designed adaptations, 
that they cannot rest in the assumption that these are merely 
accidental or inherent qualities of matter. It has been said, 
that as science advances, the Deity recedes : If by this is 
meant that his irregular action is more and more excluded as 
a hypothesis or belief, the statement is correct ; but in the 
sense that the evidence of his existence, power, and wisdom, 
becomes feebler, it is a mistake. The most stupendous idea 
of the universe that has yet been formed is that which sup- 
poses every fixed star to be a sun like our own, with planets 
circling round it, and the whole to be revolving round a 
more gigantic and hitherto undiscovered central orb. But 
this hypothesis assumes that the stars move round the cen- 
tral sun in virtue of forces of the same nature and obeying 
the same laws as those which prevail in the Earth ; so that, 
even according to this view, the Deity is as directly influen- 
cing our planet as the heavenly host. The faculties of Cau- 
sality and Comparison, judging from these data, support our 
intuitive belief that an extramundane Power and Intelligence 
exists, and that it instituted those adaptations* 

It is objected that reason does not warrant our belief in the 
self-existence of God ; and some affirm, that, for any thing we 
know to the contrary, the Kuler of the world may himself 
own a superior, and have been created. Their argument is 
stated in this form : " You who believe in God from intuition, 
must submit your belief to the scrutiny of reason. If }^ou admit 
that every being must have a cause, then this Being himself 

* In the System of Phrenology, I remarked that in individuals who are unable to see 
evidence in nature of the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, the organ of Causality is 
small. This was a premature conclusion ; for I have since known men in whom the 
reasoning organs were amply developed and well cultivated, who assured me that they 
could not reach the conviction of the being of a God. I have known some such men equal, 
in point of integrity and practical benevolence, to the most orthodox believers. 1 am 
unable to predicate on what peculiarity of cerebral structure and condition in their 
case, this want of theological belief depends ; but unless mankind, in all ages, have 
mistaken a mere phantom of imagination for a conviction of the understanding, or an 
intuitive truth, some peculiarity in the cerebral constitution of such persons will 
doubtless be found. 



OF GOD. 



77 



is an effect. You have no warrant in your intuitions, and 
there is no evidence from reason of his self-existence or self- 
creation ; and, as he does exist, you must assign a cause of 
him, on the same principle that you regard him as the cause 
of the material creation/' The atheists carry this argument 
the length of an absolute denial of God, in respect that it is 
only the first cause that, according to them, can legitimately 
be regarded as Deity ; and the first cause, say they, is to us 
unknown. 

The following answer to this objection may be considered. 
The knowing faculties perceive objects directly, and Causality 
infers qualities from manifestations. To be able to judge 
thoroughly of any object, the whole of these faculties must be 
employed on it. When a watch, for example, is presented to 
us, the knowing faculties perceive its spring, lever, and wheels, 
and Causality discerns the object or design. If the question 
is put, Whence did the watch proceed ? — from the nature of 
its materials as perceived by the knowing faculties, Causality 
infers that it could not make itself ; and from discovering in- 
telligence and design in the adaptation of its parts, this faculty 
concludes, that its cause must have possessed these qualities, 
and therefore assigns its production to an intelligent artificer. 
Suppose the statement to be next made — " This artificer him- 
self is an existence, and every existence must have a cause ; 
who, then, made the watchmaker ?" In this case, if no far- 
ther information were presented to Causality than what it 
could obtain by contemplating the structure of the watch, the 
answer would necessarily be, that it could not tell. But let 
the artificer, or man, be submitted to the joint observation of 
the knowing faculties and Causality, and let the question be 
put, Who made him? — the knowing powers, by examining 
the structure of his body, would present Causality with data 
from which it could unerringly infer, that although it per- 
ceived in him intelligence and power sufficient to make the 
watch, yet, from the nature of his constitution, he could not 
possibly have made himself. Proceeding in the investigation, 
Causality, still aided by the knowing faculties, would perceive 
the most striking indications of power, benevolence, and de- 
sign in the human frame ; and from contemplating these, it 
would arrive at a conviction, that the watchmaker is the work 
of a great, powerful, and intelligent Being. If, however, the 
question were repeated, " Whence did this Being proceed ?" 
Causality could not answer, any more than it could tell, from 
seeing the watch alone, who made the watchmaker. The per- 
ceptive faculties cannot observe the substance of the Maker 
of the human body ; His existence is suggested by Comparison 



78 



OF GOD. 



and Causality ; and all that they can accomplish is to infer 
his existence, and his qualities or attributes, from perceiving 
their manifestation. They have no data for inferring that He 
had an antecedent. 

The argument now stated is objected to in a letter written to 
me by a deceased friend of great talents and attainments, on 
the following grounds: — "The argument of Design/' it is said, 
" is a posteriori. It is an argument of analogy. It ascends 
from the known to the unknown. The subjects of the analogy 
are the works of man, a watch, a code of laws, or any other 
human contrivance, on one hand : and the phenomena of Na- 
ture on the other. The former, the watch, &c. are known to have 
been designed by the human Designer, Man ; the latter, the phe- 
nomena of Nature, are inferred analogically to have been de- 
signed by the Unknown, but sought, Designer, God. "Well, it 
appears to me that an analogy to be good for demonstration, 
must be extensible, at least in its essence, equally to both of 
the terms of the analogy. Now, man, the known Designer, 
invents or designs by discovering laws external to and inde- 
pendent of himself, and then applying these laws to the sure 
production of effects which he desiderates. (Black discovers 
latent heat, Watt applies that discovery in a desiderated di- 
rection, and the steam-engine is brought to perfection.) There- 
fore, the Unknown Designer, who is inferred by this analogy, 
does, for all the analogy makes good, simply discover truth 
external to, and independent of Himself, and then applies that 
truth to the production of effects (the phenomena of Nature), 
which he desiderates. This is not God, the eternal, almighty, 
and every way infinite One, whose existence the argument pro- 
fesses to demonstrate." 

The argument from reason maintained in the preceding- 
pages, may no doubt fall short of this demonstration ; but it 
appears to me that the Supernatural Designer does much more 
than, like man, invent or design by discovering laws external 
to, and independent of Himself. The bodies of the mammalia 
are composed of the chemical elements named on page 23; and 
out of these, the Unknown Designer has formed different or- 
ganisms which manifest very different qualities. The tiger 
and the lamb, the horse and the owl, man and the ape, are all 
composed, so far as We have yet discovered, of these ten ele- 
ments. We have found out many of the laws which the 
elements obey in entering into combinations, and are able 
to produce from them many admirable new results : but we 
have never been able to convert them, by any skill of our 
own, into organized beings ; much less to make those specific 
combinations of them which constitute different organisms, 



OF GOD. 



79 



capable of manifesting different qualities. Even supposing 
Mr Cross to have produced by electricity the lowest species of 
organized being out of inorganic matter, still he could not 
give form and properties to that being at his will. It was at 
best a reproduction of a known organism. But the Unknown 
Designer appears to encounter no such difficulties. The ten 
elements, when wielded by Him, take every variety of Form, 
and manifest the most diverse qualities. Nay, He endows the 
structures with powers to be exerted contingently — powers 
which are ready to act when circumstances require their ac- 
tion, or to remain latent for ever. The blood of animals, for 
example, is possessed of the quality of repairing losses and in- 
juries which may be sustained by their organisms, so that if a 
muscle is injured, it shall deposit muscular fibre, and if a bone 
is broken, it shall deposit osseous matter, in the places and 
quantities necessary to restore the parts to health and effi- 
ciency. But life may be passed without these parts sustaining 
any injury ; and in this case the powers are never evoked into 
action. These phenomena indicate to Comparison and Cau- 
sality that the Unknown Contriver possessed over the ten ele- 
ments a command indescribably superior to that which we can 
wield. 

Again, Man has in vain attempted to produce a perpetual 
motion ; but the Supernatural Power appears to have found no 
difficulty in doing so. The revolution of the planets round 
the sun, and of the satellites round their principal planets, are 
examples in point. We comprehend the laws which govern 
these evolutions, and see uniformity and design manifested in 
them, but we cannot even conjecture how the planets were 
formed, and how their powers of motion were communicated to 
them. The only inference we can legitimately draw appears 
to me to be that intelligence and power produced these stupen- 
dous phenomena, and that the author of them is not a mere ana- 
logue of human power and intelligence, but that He deals with 
matter as its master. "When we see things done with matter 
which man in vain attempts to accomplish, it seems a logical 
inference that the Unknown author of the things is not, like 
man, a mere worker on materials possessing properties which 
he cannot change, but one who, in a far higher degree, and to 
an extent unknown to us, commands their very essence, and 
applies them according to his will. We cannot discover limits 
to this power in the Unknown Designer, and hence we call 
him God. 

This argument does not profess to demonstrate all the at- 
tributes of God ; but only His existence, and such of His at- 
tributes as our limited faculties are capable of comprehending. 



80 



OF GOD. 



Our notions of the latter will be constantly augmented in num- 
ber, and rise in sublimity in proportion to our advance in cor- 
rect knowledge of their manifestations in nature. At present, 
we have scarcely started in our career of discovery of these, 
because, hitherto we have wanted the grand element necessary 
to comprehend God s mode of governing the most important de- 
partments of this world, viz. — knowledge of the means by 
which moral phenomena are produced and regulated. 

Dr Vimont remarks, that we cannot fully comprehend God 
without being his equal ; just as a dog cannot comprehend the 
human mind, in consequence of its utter want of several of the 
human faculties. 

Hobbes, in his Treatise on Human Nature, has stated a 
somewhat similar view. " Forasmuch/' says he, " as God 
Almighty is incomprehensible, it followeth that we can have 
no conception or image of the Deity ; and, consequently, all 
his attributes signify our inability and defect of power to con- 
ceive anything concerning His nature, and not any conception 
of the same, except only this, That there is a God. Thus all 
that will consider may know that God is, though not what he 

It has been objected, that although our intuitive perceptions, 
and also inferences drawn by Causality and Comparison may 
lead us to believe that God has existed, we see no evidence that 
he now exists. I reply that the manifestations of his agency, 
power, wisdom, and goodness, continue to be presented to us 
every moment, and that we have no data for concluding that 
the cause has ceased, while the effects continue. 

The impossibility of the human faculties fully comprehend- 
ing God has forced itself on some of the great minds who at- 
tempted to describe the Deity in Scripture. The definition of 
Him, as " I am," assumes that all is implied in the simple fact 
of his existence ; and the question, " Canst thou by searching 
find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfec- 
tion ?" coincides with the views now suggested. 

If these opinions of the limitation of human capacity in at- 
tempting to comprehend God be well founded, all discussions 
about the manner in which He exists must be futile, and to 
my mind they are highly irreverent. Locke defines a " per- 
son" to be "a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and 
reflection, and considers itself as itself, the same thinking 
thing in different times and places." In this sense of the word 
our intellectual faculties lead us to assign a personal character 
to the Deity, although we can form no well-grounded notions 
concerning his form, his substance, his size, or his mode of 
living. 



OF GOD. 



81 



An article in the Edinburgh Review, generally ascribed to 
the Eev. Mr Sedgwick, expresses a similar view : — 

" What know we," says he, " of the God of nature (we speak only of na- 
tural means), except through the faculties He has given us, rightly employed 
on the materials around us ? In this we rise to a conception of material in- 
organic laws, in beautiful harmony and adjustment ; and they suggest to us 
the conception of infinite power and wisdom. In like manner we rise to a 
conception of organic laws — -of means (often almost purely mechanical, as 
they seem to us, and their organic functions well comprehended) adapted to 
an end — and that end the well-being of a creature endowed with sensation 
and volition. Thus we rise to a conception both of Divine Power and Di- 
vine Goodness ; and we are constrained to believe, not merely that all ma- 
terial law is subordinate to His will, but that He has also (in the way He 
allows us to see His works) so exhibited the attributes of His will, as to 
shew himself to the mind of man as a personal and superintending God, 
concentrating His will on every atom of the universe." 

Many persons believe that we owe our knowledge of the 
existence of God to the Bible ; but this is a mistake, for it 
commences with expressions which obviously assume His 
existence as a fact. 

Instead of vainly attempting to define so sacred an object 
as G-od, and one so far transcending our power of comprehen- 
sion, let us inquire into the manifestations of His Will pre- 
sented to us in Nature ; and first as to the means by which He 
appears to govern the world. 



82 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD, 



CHAPTEE VI. 

CAN WE TRACE DIVINE GOVERNMENT IN THE PHENOMENA OF THE 
PHYSICAL AND MORAL WORLDS ? AND IF SO, BY WHAT MEANS IS 
IT MAINTAINED AND RENDERED EFFICIENT ? 

SECTION I. — OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD. 

All matter appears to exert force. The particles of the 
diamond cohere with so intense an energy, that it requires 
great mechanical power to separate them. The mountains 
seem inert, but they are constantly pressing downwards to- 
wards the centre of the earth. Water slumbering peacefully 
in the bosom of a lake, is exerting a pressure on the bottom 
and sides, and is in fact operating with a force similar to that 
which it manifests in rushing over the precipice. In the 
latter case, we perceive the force only because there is no 
counterbalancing resistance to arrest its action. 

Farther, the forces of different substances act on each other, 
and produce important results. Oxygen acting on sulphur, in 
certain circumstances, combines with it and produces sul- 
phuric acid, a highly corrosive liquid. Under the influence of 
heat, the same gas combines with carbon, and produces a 
gas destructive of animal life. If this reciprocal action of 
corporeal substances were indefinite and unlimited, the physi- 
cal world, apparently, might lapse into confusion, chaos might 
come again, and the earth could afford no abiding place for 
animated beings. How is this result obviated ? And by what 
means are order in the arrangements and regularity in the 
evolutions of matter preserved ? 

Each elementary substance manifests the tendency to under- 
go changes, and to act on other substances, only in certain ways 
and under certain conditions. The formation of crystals, and the 
cohesion of the particles of a liquid metal on cooling, are ex- 
amples of the tendency of elements of the same kind to combine 
with each other in a specific manner; while the combination of 
different chemical elements, always in certain definite propor- 
tions, in constituting a new compound, is an example of the regu- 
lation of the powers of distinct substances in acting on each other. 
By investing the elements of matter with definite tendencies, 



OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD. 83 

and subjecting them to definite restraints, God appears to have 
made a provision for the maintenance of order and regularity 
in physical nature, which commends itself to the human in- 
tellect as simple and efficacious, and to our sentiments as ad- 
mirable and exquisitely beautiful. After perceiving it we are 
able to contemplate the ceaseless changes proceeding in the 
material world, without apprehensions of confusion. The rocks 
are riven by the lightning, worn by the flood, or disintegrated 
by the frost, and their particles are swept into the sea ; but 
other regulated forces are there forming new combinations of 
them, and new rocks, possessing the same characteristics as 
the old, will in future time emerge from the deep. 

The Divine government of the physical world thus becomes 
manifest to us through the perception of order and regularity in 
the action of matter ; and the means by which it is accomplished 
appear to be the endowing of these with definite forces, and 
enabling them to act on each other only in definite modes. 
As our faculties cannot penetrate behind the screen of matter, 
we can study the method of the Divine government only in 
the means by which it is conducted; and under this view 
science is an exposition of the order of Providence in govern- 
ing the world. Every action of matter is a manifestation of 
Divine power, and when it is so regarded, is calculated to 
challenge the highest reverence of our emotional faculties. 
Astronomy, Chemistry, and the other physical sciences, unfold 
to us the forces and arrangements through which the changes 
of the seasons, the fertility of the soil, and the food of man and 
animals are produced. Famine and overflowing abundance, 
with all their physiological and moral consequences, are the 
results of the action of these forces ; and we must extend our 
knowledge of them, and adapt our conduct to their operation, 
if we desire to understand and to conform to the Divine 
government. Natural philosophy consists of a description of 
the manner, so far as man has discovered it, in which the 
stupendous universe of suns and worlds, stretching beyond the 
scope even of our imaginations, are bound together and regu- 
lated ; and mechanical science is an exposition of the condi- 
tions under which God has enabled us to control and apply a 
variety of the powers of nature. The forces of matter in the 
same circumstances, act with so much regularity and pre- 
cision, that we are able to employ even mathematical propor- 
tions as means of measuring and calculating their effects. 

In investigating physical forces and their relations and 
consequences, we may employ the intellectual faculties ex- 
clusively ; and, in this case, our observations and conclusions 
are scientific in their character. The moral and religious 

f 2 



84 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



emotions not being engaged in the investigation, there is 
nothing directly moral or religious in the knowledge which 
constitutes pure physical science. It is advantageous that 
science should be thus cultivated for its own advancement, 
because excited emotions disturb and often mislead the intel- 
lect. But, from the teachers desk, from the moral and 
religious chairs of our universities, and from our pulpits, the 
intellect and the moral and religious sentiments should act 
together in communicating the truths of science as expositions 
of the means by which G-od governs the world. These senti- 
ments would give to the intellectual instruction that exciting 
and hallowing influence which is indispensable to evolve re- 
verence at once for the Euler of the world, and for the means 
by which His government is conducted. It is difficult to per- 
ceive how otherwise the aid of the religious emotions can be 
obtained towards leading men seriously to regulate their con- 
duct in conformity to the order of nature. Keligion and 
science have never been thus systematically combined in the 
general instruction of the people ; and hence the barrenness of 
science in moral and religious fruits, and of religion in the 
practical advancement of secular well-being. 

If the views now advanced are sound, it appears to follow 
that Divine government is conspicuous in every well-under- 
stood department of physical nature, that it is accomplished 
by endowing physical substances with definite properties, and 
that the evidences of this government, of the mode in which it 
is administered, and of the laws by which it is maintained, will 
become more and more clear and comprehensible, in proportion 
to the exactness of our knowledge of the objects through the in- 
strumentality ofiuhich it is accomplished. It is only where we 
are altogether ignorant of the causes of phenomena, or where 
our knowledge of them is vague and general, that confusion 
appears to reign ; while intimate knowledge constantly reveals 
order and harmony. 



SECTION II. — CAN WE DISCOVER THE MEANS BY WHICH THE MORAL 
WORLD IS GOVERNED ? 

By the government of the moral world, I mean the regula- 
tion of the phenomena exhibited by conscious and intelligent 
beings. We may first consider the case of the lower animals. 
Order and law appear to govern in the highest degree their 
production and action. They are all composed of the ten 
chemical elements before named, but the most rigid restric- 
tions have been placed on the manner and conditions under 



THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



85 



which these shall combine in forming each species of animal. 
Man has not succeeded in imitating these combinations, and 
has not been able to manufacture a living organism. How 
are the characteristics of each species of animated beings in- 
stituted and preserved, so as to render each permanent, with- 
out any one of them changing its nature, and without the pos- 
sibility of their generally amalgamating, and thus producing 
monstrosities, ending in ultimate and universal confusion ? 
Apparently, by imposing impassable restraints on the action of 
the atoms of matter, when combining to form their organisms. 
The sheep and wolf cannot combine their blood and qualities 
by propagation ; and although the horse and ass produce the 
mule, which appears an exception, it cannot continue its own 
race. Here, then, law and order are conspicuous. 

When the animal is produced, its unconscious and conscious 
actions are equally regulated. Each species finds itself in cir- 
cumstances in which external things are adapted to its organ- 
ism — the water to the fish, the land to the quadruped, and the 
air to the bird. Each species possesses an apparatus for 
breathing, and the air is found to be adapted to all ; each has 
digestive organs, and peculiar food related to these organs is 
provided for each variety, — grass for the ox and sheep, and 
flesh for the tiger and lion. 

Ascending to their conscious actions, we find the swallow 
inspired with the inclination and capacity to build its nest ; 
the beaver its hut; the bee its cells; with unerring precision : 
while the fox practises cunning, and the cock manifests cou- 
rage, without experience or being taught. 

Directing our attention still upwards, we find the very ex- 
istence of the different species of the lower animals placed 
under regulations. At a meeting of the British Association 
(in 1856), Sir William Jardine read a communication on the 
progress of the artificial propagation of salmon in the Tay, a 
subject on which he was specially authorised to report by the 
Association. In the course of his remarks, Sir William is re- 
ported to have stated, " that it has been found that one of tho 
worst enemies of the salmon ova in the breeding beds is tfi3 
larvae of the May-fly, a creature which in its turn was preyed 
upon by the common river trout. Now, the practice had pre- 
vailed in rivers preserved for salmon-fishing of destroying 
trout, though this fact shewed that the numbers of trout s 
ought not to be unduly diminished, as by keeping down the 
May-fly they aided in propagating salmon. As an illustration 
of this law of nature, he pointed out, that in parts of the coun- 
try in which hawks had been ruthlessly extirpated, with the 
object of encouraging the breed of game, wood-pigeons had in- 



86 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



creased to such an extent as to have become a positive nui- 
sance, and most injurious to the farmer ; and he shewed the 
danger incurred by unduly interfering with the balance esta- 
blished by nature among ivild animals." 

How, then, are these specific qualities and powers of action, 
these adaptations, restrictions, and reciprocal checks, through 
which universal order is instituted and preserved among beings 
destitute of reason, and unconscious of the place and duties 
allotted to them in the world — produced ? It appears to me 
that this is accomplished by the endowment of the material 
elements of which they are composed, with specific powers of 
action, and placing every one of these under restraints which 
it cannot surmount. It is in the organisms of the animals 
that we find the instruments of the Divine government of their 
actions revealed, and it is through the study of the qualities 
of these instruments that we discover the laws of this go- 
vernment. 

Stupendous and admirable as these examples of Divine go- 
vernment are, our dogmatic religion not only ignores them, 
but excludes their being converted into religious truths by 
association with our religious emotions. Although the natu- 
ral history of animals is taught meagerly in a few schools, 
and more largely in our universities, it is the physical ap- 
pearance and habits of the different species that form the 
grand elements of this instruction : the view now given of 
these as examples of the Divine government on earth, is omit- 
ted, and by many persons it is objected to as disguised infi- 
delity, or as a new religion. If the young were taught to 
perceive and comprehend the prevalence of law and order in 
the government of the inferior races, and to view this as a ma- 
nifestation of the power and wisdom of God, it would greatly 
augment the interest with which they would study the phy- 
sical and organic qualities and actions of the creatures; and it 
would also prepare their minds for the all-important truth, that 
man is placed under a similar regime himself. The evidence 
of this fact shall form the next subject of our consideration. 

By the moral government of the world in relation to man, is 
meant the control and direction maintained by the Divine Kuler 
over human actions, by means of which He leads individuals 
and the race to fulfil the objects for which he instituted them. 
The problem is to discover the reality of this government; 
and this may perhaps be best accomplished by considering the 
manner in which it is accomplished. As previously observed, 
our ancestors in the seventeenth century believed this govern- 
ment to be conducted by special acts of supernatural inter- 



GOVERNMENT OF MAN. 



87 



ference on the part of God with human affairs. Science has 
banished this idea, and has substituted in its place the notion 
that the moral world also is governed by natural laws ; but it 
has made small progress in unfolding what these laws are, and 
how they operate. The consequence is, that, at this moment, 
the great body of the people entertain no serious or practical 
conviction that such a government exists ; and that even en- 
lightened men have no systematic or self-consistent notions 
concerning the mode in which it is conducted. They acknow- 
ledge in words that there is a Divine government in the moral 
as well as in the physical world, and that it is by natural laws ; 
but here they have stopped, and most of them are silent concern- 
ing the mode of that government. In consequence of the ex- 
clusion, effected by science, of the notion that special acts of 
Divine interference now take place in human affairs, the reli- 
gious teaching founded on that principle has become effete. 
It has not been formally given up, but it is no longer of prac- 
tical efficacy. Hence we are at this moment really a people 
without any acknowledged, self-consistent, satisfactory, or prac- 
tical notions concerning the moral government of the world ; 
in other words, concerning the order of God's providence in 
governing the condition and actions of men, and educing from 
them the results which He designed. 

How is this deficiency to be supplied ? Apparently in the 
same manner in which we have supplied other defects of our 
knowledge of the order of God's providence in the physical 
and organic kingdoms. Do we know intimately the machinery 
by means of which the government of the moral world is 
maintained and conducted ? The answer must be in the 
negative. Have we applied such science of the body as we 
possess to guide us in discovering the principles on which 
health, disease, and death are dispensed to man ? Have we 
any science of mind resembling in precision, minuteness, and 
certainty, the sciences of astronomy and chemistry ? Monsieur 
De Bonald, in words quoted by Mr Dugald Stewart, answers the 
question. "The diversity of doctrines," says he, "has increased 
from age to age with the number of masters, and with the pro- 
gress of knowledge ; and Europe, which at present possesses 
libraries filled with philosophical works, and which reckons 
up almost as many philosophers as writers ; poor in the midst 
of so much wealth, and uncertain, with the aid of all its 
guides, which road it should follow ; — Europe, the centre and 
focus of all the lights of the world, has yet its philosophy only 
in expectation."* 

* Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation to the Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. i. p. 230. 



88 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



If the science of mind be as indispensable to our under- 
standing the manner in which the Divine government of 
human actions is conducted, as is the science of matter to our 
comprehending the order of that government in the physical 
world, and if Monsieur De Bonald's description of the condi- 
tion of mental science be correct, there is no cause for surprise 
at the darkness which envelopes us in regard to the govern- 
ment of the moral world. 

It is too certain that Monsieur De Bonald is in the right ; 
for although man has received a material body, has been 
placed in a material world, been subjected during his whole 
life to material influences, and can act on the external world 
only through the instrumentality of material organs, never- 
theless, in the most esteemed treatises on the philosophy of 
mind, moral and intellectual faculties are described without 
mention of special organs, or of the influence of these in 
modifying the manifestations of the faculties ; and without 
taking much notice of the relation of each faculty and organ to 
the other faculties and organs, or to external objects. In many 
standard works on Christian theology also, not only is all this 
knowledge omitted, but it is often denounced as degrading 
materialism and dangerous infidelity. Here, then, a dark 
abyss of ignorance, apparently impassable, breaks off all prac- 
tical knowledge of the organic conditions under which mind 
is manifested, and also is acted upon by external moral and 
physical objects. And if our knowledge of the order of God'spro- 
vidence can increase only with our knowledge of the means or in- 
struments through which He administers it, are we to sit quietly 
down, and allow this state of ignorance to continue for ever ? 

The reason why it has continued in the department of mind 
so long has already been mentioned. In a state of health, most 
men have no consciousness of the existence and interposition 
of material organs in thinking. They are conscious of 
thoughts and feelings, but not of organs ; and people have 
been taught to ascribe all the phenomena of consciousness to 
mind alone. Consequently, they are offended with those who 
refer such phenomena in any degree to the influence of organs. 
Nevertheless, facts which are revealed by the most ordinary 
observation, shew, that mental organs exist, and have been 
endowed with specific powers, and been placed in specific 
relations to each other and to external objects, and that 
they manifest and determine the nature and modes of action 
of the forces which produce the phenomena of the moral 
world. May not the key to a knowledge of the manner in 
which God governs the world of mind, then, be found in the 
stu dy of these organs, and their laws and relations ? One 



LIFE — HEALTH — DISEASE — AND DEATH. 



89 



point seems to be clear enough ; namely, that if God has in- 
stituted mental organs, and ordained their functions, their 
constitution and laws must be adapted to the constitution and 
laws of all the other departments in creation ; and that, there- 
fore, a correct knowledge of the relations of the world of mind 
to the world of matter, must be unattainable, while we remain 
in ignorance of the mental organs. 

A knowledge of these organs, therefore, and their relations 
and laws, appears calculated to form a bridge across the 
abyss of ignorance, which has hitherto concealed from our 
view the manner in which the Divine government of the moral 
world in the department of mind is conducted. 

Let me ask, why should we be so deeply in the dark con- 
cerning the laws according to which life, health, talents, dis- 
positions, and individual and social happiness, are dispensed 
to man ? This question may, perhaps, be answered by 
asking others. Do we know intimately the causes which pro- 
duce health and disease* ? The laws of action of these may 
regulate the endurance of life. Do we know the causes which 
give rise to the different dispositions and capacities of men ? 
The degrees in which these causes are combined may be emi- 
nently influential in determining individual endowments. Do 
we know the precise social effects which these dispositions and 
capacities are fitted, in the case of each person, to produce, 
when permitted to act blindly, to act under false or imperfect 
information, or to act under a clear and correct knowledge of 
the real nature and relations of things ? On the extent of 
this knowledge may depend our capacity to discern the causes 
of social happiness or misery, and to augment or diminish our 
own share of them. Do we know whether these causes and 
effects, whatever they may be, are to any extent subject to 
human control ? and if so, how we may control them ? If 
they are not subject to man's jurisdiction, do we know whether 
he has it in his power to modify, in any degree, his own con- 
duct, in relation to their agency, so as to diminish the evil or 
increase the good which they are calculated to produce ? 

To nearly all of these questions only a negative answer 
can be given ; and I suspect that in this ignorance lies the 
grand obstacle to the discovery of the mode in which God 
governs the moral world. 



SECTION III. — OF LIFE — HEALTH — DISEASE — AND DEATH. 

Life and health are the foundations of human well-being 
on earth ; and in Chap. III. a brief exposition has been given 



90 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



of the elements of the human body, and the results of their 
combination into a living organism. 

Death is perhaps the most solemn and momentous subject 
which can engage the consideration of Man. According to 
the dogmas of most of the religious sects of Christendom, it 
is a penalty inflicted by God on all mankind for Adam's first 
transgression ; and it is also the awful portal through which each 
individual is ushered into everlasting happiness or misery. 
According to this view it is a dire calamity, which we must 
submit to with all the patience and resignation we can com- 
mand, hoping for heaven as a solace under its pressure and a 
refuge from its terrors. According to the prevalent dogmas, 
however, these consolations are reserved only for the true 
believers of each sect ; the adherents of the other sects — those 
which believe in " soul-destroying errors," — and also all man- 
kind who have not known Christianity, or who have not be- 
lieved that interpretation of it which each sect holds to lead 
to salvation, — being doomed inexorably to death on earth and 
to never-ceasing misery hereafter. 

At the time when these views were framed into dogmas, 
and woven into the core of the religious emotions of Europe 
as Divine truths, there was no science of geology revealing 
the condition of the earth and its inhabitants during millions 
of years before man appeared ; no science of chemistry unfold- 
ing the elements of which man is composed and their relations 
to the things of this life ; no science of physiology indicating 
the structure, functions, and relations of the different parts of 
the organism of man, and shewing their peculiar adaptation 
to this world. When we contemplate the facts brought to 
light in these sciences, we discover that death was an 
institution of nature, reigning among the inhabitants of the 
earth, through countless ages before a trace of man has been 
discovered ; that there is a general resemblance between his 
structure and theirs ; that his organism is constituted to 
receive its origin from previously existing organisms, to 
increase by assimilating the chemical elements of organized 
bodies with its own tissues, to reach maturity, then to decay, 
and finally to die ; death being the resolution of its parts into 
their original elements. 

According to the lights of science, therefore, death is an 
institution of nature ; this conclusion becomes more certain in 
proportion to our advance in knowledge of our own con- 
stitution, of that of external objects, and of the relations 
established between them. 

Here, then, is a conflict between the prevailing dogmas of 
Christendom, and science. Death viewed as a penalty is an 



DEATH. 



91 



incubus, a terror, and an affliction, calculated to darken the 
whole of life ; and to those whose self-appreciation is governed 
by conscientiousness, who can discover no reasons why they 
should have been elected from all eternity to enter in at the 
strait gate, while countless millions of their fellow-creatures, 
equal, and some of them superior to themselves in every 
estimable quality, should have been consigned to never-end- 
ing suffering — to such minds the dogmatic sequel to death 
unspeakably augments its terrors. The grand remedy pre- 
sented by each sect for this overwhelming evil, which it 
has conjured into existence, is belief in its own dogmas ; and, 
according to them, no ray of consolation can be derived from 
any other source. 

Viewed as a natural institution, death wears a different 
aspect. When we investigate the organism of man, we find 
it constituted in harmony with death. Organs of Destructive- 
ness enable us, when in full health and actively employed, to 
live amidst the daily extinction of animal and human life, 
without finding it appalling and overwhelming. We enjoy 
repasts composed of the flesh of dead animals, and are gay and 
joyous over them. By the appointment of nature, they 
nourish and replenish us with vigour to discharge our moral and 
intellectual duties. In a state of health we pass the funerals 
of human beings in the streets, and look at the array, rarely 
stopping in our career of business or pleasure to moralize on 
the uncertainty of life. The dogmas represent this in- 
difference as sin ; science regards it as the result of the 
adaptation of our mental faculties to the circumstances in 
which they are destined to act. Nature prevails, and man in 
health and activity rarely thinks of death with fear. The pul- 
pit often recalls it to our recollection ; but, guided by dogmas 
which contradict nature, it only invests it with unauthorized 
terrors, and, by misdirecting our understandings, allows it to 
afflict us with evils, which, under a system of sounder instruc- 
tion, might be avoided. It discourses largely of death as the 
prelude to a day of terrible retribution : but it is silent as to the 
causes of its premature occurrence, which, by separating hus- 
band and wife in the prime of life and in the full tide of domes- 
tic felicity, inflicts the deepest anguish on human affection ; 
or, by removing children in the dawn of their existence, spreads 
desolation in the parental bosom; or, by cutting short the career 
of genius, or of manly vigour in its zenith, deprives society of all 
that the possessors of these gifts might have contributed to its 
welfare. These constitute the grand evils of death, and they 
are to a great extent avoidable : yet the pulpit chants dirges 
over their occurrence, points to them as the punishments of 



92 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



sin, refuses to recognize them as the temporal consequences 
of the infraction of the laws of health, which, being of 
Divine origin, it is its bounden duty to teach and enforce ; 
while it calumniates as infidels all who attempt to shed light 
on this anomalous state of things. To this line of conduct, 
however, there are admirable exceptions, worthy of all 
reverence and sympathy; but I speak of the general style of 
preaching the dogmas of Christendom from the pulpit. One 
legitimate office of the pulpit, in relation to this subject, 
appears to me to be to warn us of our liability, by neglect and 
infringement of the laws of health, to bring upon ourselves 
the terrible sufferings that naturally accompany disease and 
premature death, and to teach us that it is a religious duty to 
study these laws and to obey them. 

As we proceed in our scientific investigations, we discover 
that the human organism, when soundly constituted at birth 
and placed in normal circumstances during life, is framed to 
act without pain or suffering for seventy years at least ; that 
after fifty, a process of insensible decay commences, accom- 
panied by changes in our feelings and desires preparing 
us for death, and that when the extreme of life is reached, the 
harmony between our desires and death is complete. We do 
not then find death to be either a penalty or a calamity. 

Viewed as an institution, it is obviously the means through 
which, in a world of limited space, the exquisite enjoyments 
of love between the sexes, and parental affection, are provided 
for ; and it is through death that the errors, prejudices, and 
obstructions which impede the civilization and enjoyment of 
the race, are removed, by introducing the young, ingenuous, 
and enterprising, to mount higher and higher in the path of 
improvement. Viewed in this light, and deprived of its penal 
and portentous character, death is bereft of its most formid- 
able features. We of this generation, into whose minds its 
terrible aspects have been deeply engraven by our spiritual in- 
structors, can scarcely form a correct idea of the light in which 
it will appear to those who shall have been taught from in- 
fancy to regard it as an institution of G-od, intended not for 
our affliction, but as a necessary element in His plan of go- 
vernment, accompanied by innumerable advantages to our- 
selves, and, at the natural close of life, deprived of its terrors, 
by the accommodation of our feelings to its approach. 

The dogmas derive their chief support from the facts that 
death is intuitively dreaded by most people, and that it is oc- 
casionally the cause of the deepest afflictions that darken the 
lot of man. How then shall we reconcile these facts with the no- 
tion of death being a beneficent institution? The explanation 



LIFE — HEALTH — DISEASE — AND DEATH. 



93 



appears to me to be this — It is death in youth and middle age 
that wears these aspects, and is attended with these sufferings ; 
but such deaths are not natural institutions, but accidents 
arising from human ignorance, and regardlessness of God's 
laws. We have been endowed with intelligence to discover 
our position on earth, and the duties it requires of us ; and in 
proportion as we shall adequately comprehend the one and 
fulfil the other, we shall find premature death, and its general 
precursor, disease and pain, gradually diminishing. So far, how- 
ever, as can at present be discerned, we cannot foretell the ulti- 
mate cessation of evil on earth; the power in our organism to 
repair casual injuries, and our faculties of Combativeness, De- 
structiveness, Cautiousness, and Secretiveness, appear to be con- 
stituted in direct relation to a world in which there shall al- 
ways be a liability to evil ; but, on the other hand, our moral 
and intellectual endowments, by giving the desire and capa- 
city for progressive improvement, seem to indicate that ad- 
vance in happiness is possible, and part of the plan of our- 
being. Let us then investigate the causes of disease and pre- 
mature death, and try to discover in what circumstances they 
occur, and what character they bear in the moral government 
of the world. 

From an attentive study of our constitution, it appears that 
the Divine Euler has conferred on man a system of organs of 
respiration, a heart and bloodvessels, a stomach and other 
organs of nutrition, and so forth; that to each of these He has 
given a definite constitution ; and that He has appointed definite 
relations between each of them and all the others, and between 
each of them and the objects of external nature : and I now 
add that experience teaches us that life and health accompany 
the normal and harmonious action of the whole ; and that dis- 
ease, pain, and premature death, are the consequences of their 
disproportionate and abnormal action. 

The study of the structure, functions, relations, and laws of 
these vital parts, then, appears to me to be the true mode of in- 
vestigating the principles according to which God dispenses life, 
health, disease, and death in this world ; in other words, the 
mode in which He governs in this department of creation* This 
view becomes more reasonable when we consider that hitherto 
no institution has been discovered in nature the direct object 
of which is to produce evil; that all known Natural Institutions 
appear to be calculated to produce a preponderance of good ; 

* In prosecuting this idea, my late brother, Br A. Combe, was my Constant coadju- 
tor and guide. 



94 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



and that G-od lias given us faculties which enable us, within 
certain limits, to observe, understand, and act, according to the 
laws which regulate the forces that most directly affect our 
well-being. 

Let us endeavour, then, to bring this idea to the test of ob- 
servation and reason. With this view we may select the en- 
durance of life as the first subject of our consideration. 

It is beyond the compass of our faculties to discover why 
the world was constituted such as it is ; but we must take the 
facts of nature as they exist ; and I conclude that death in 
old age cannot be prevented by human intelligence and power. 
That the endurance of life, however, within prescribed limits, 
is subject to human influence, appears undeniable. That it 
depends on regularly operating causes, is rendered obvious 
by the records of mortality. The registers of burials kept in 
the different countries of Europe present striking examples of 
uniformity in the number of deaths that occur at the same 
ages in different years. So constant are these results, while 
the circumstances of any country continue the same, that it is 
possible to predict, with nearly perfect certainty, that in Eng- 
land and Wales, of 1000 persons between the ages of 20 and 30, 
living on the first day of January in any one year, ten will die 
before the first day of January in the next year. * 

Uniformity in the numbers of events bespeaks uniformity in 
the causes which produce them ; and uniformity in causes and 
effects constitutes the fundamental idea of government. If, 
then, these deaths do not occur arbitrarily or fortuitously, but 
result from regularly operating causes, the following questions 
present themselves for solution : — Are these causes discover- 
able by human intelligence ? If they are so, can that intel- 
ligence modify them? If not, can an individual adapt his 
own conduct to their operation so as to influence their effects ? 
These questions are important, equally in a religious and a prac- 
tical point of view. If the causes are constant and inscruta- 
ble, and their action irresistible, it follows that, in regard to 
death, we are subject to a sublime and mysterious fatalism ; 
in short, that the Mahometan doctrine on this subject is true. 
If, on the 1st day of January in any one year, 1000 youths, in 
the vigorous period of life, know, with nearly positive cer- 

* I have selected the example of deaths from ages between 20 and 30, because, as 
will afterwards be shewn, during this interval the conditions of life seem to be to a 
great extent under human control. In later periods, from 70 to 80, or 80 to 90, they 
are not so. The human frame then obeys the law of its constitution — it decays and dies ; 
but it does so under no inscrutable law. The causes of its decay are palpable, and the 
effects are obviously designed. The individual who suffers has then no duty but sub- 
mission to the will of the Being who conferred life on him at first as a gratuitous boon, 
and who is entitled to withdraw it when the objects for which it was given have been ac- 
complished. 



LIFE — HEALTH — DISEASE — AND DEATH. 



95 



tainty, that ere the clock strikes twelve on the night of the 31st 
of December, ten of their number will he lifeless corpses ; and 
if, nevertheless, not one of them be able to discover who are 
to be the victims, or to employ any precautions to avert the 
blow from himself, — what is this but being subject to a real 
fatalism ? 

If, on the other hand, the causes are discoverable, and if the 
individuals subject to their influence possess also the power of 
modifying them, or of accommodating their own conduct to 
their action, and of thereby changing their influence on their 
own condition for good or evil, Divine government will not 
only be discerned in the event, but that government will pre- 
sent a widely different aspect. Instead of a course of mys- 
terious fatalism, it will be a system of causation, regular in its 
action, scrutable in its principles, designedly adapted to the 
physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man, and as such 
presented to him for the cognisance of his intelligence, the 
respect of his moral feelings, and the practical guidance of his 
conduct. In discovering the causes of the ten deaths, and 
their modes of operation, we shall acquire a knowledge of the 
principles on which God administers life and death to men at 
the age between 20 and 30. We shall obtain a glimpse of the 
order of God's secular providence in this department of his 
kingdom. If this view be erroneous, there appears to be no 
alternative to the conclusion that, in regard to life and death, 
we are the subjects of a despotic fatalism. Let us inquire, 
then, whether the causes are scrutable, and whether human 
power is capable of modifying their influence. 

If we desire to know by what laws God governs the sense 
of hearing — that is to say, under what conditions he bestows 
this boon upon us, and continues it with us — we shall best suc- 
ceed by studying the structure and modes of action of the ear, 
and examining its relations to the air, to the constitution of 
sonorous bodies, to the brain, and also to the digestive, respi- 
ratory, and circulating systems of the body, on the action of 
which the sense of hearing indirectly depends. It is no abuse 
of language to say, that, in studying those details, we should 
be studying the conditions under which, within certain limits, 
we may retain, forfeit, improve, or impair the sense of hear- 
ing, pretty much at our discretion. In the structure, the 
functions, and the relations of the ear, we should discern the 
manifestations of God's power and goodness, and a clear ex- 
position of the principles on which He administers this sense. 
In the means by which we are permitted, within certain 
limits, to destroy or to preserve, to impair or to invigorate our 
hearing, we should discover the evidence of His government 



96 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



not being a despotism or a fatalism, but a system of regular 
causation adapted to our constitution and condition, and pre- 
sented to us for the investigation of our intelligence, and the 
guidance of our conduct. In the constitution of the sense and 
the appointment of its relations, which man cannot alter, 
God's sovereignty is made apparent. By connecting certain 
beneficial consequences with the actions done in accordance 
with that constitution and those relations, and certain painful 
consequences with actions done in discordance with them, 
which consequences also man cannot alter, the Divine Euler 
preserves His own sway over the sense, and over all who pos- 
sess it; while, by endowing man with intellect capable of 
discovering that constitution and its relations, with religious 
emotions enabling him to respect it, and with power, within 
certain limits, to act in accordance or discordance with, it, and 
thereby to command the favourable or the adverse results at 
his own pleasure, human freedom is established and gua- 
ranteed ; and man appears as a moral, religious, and intelli- 
gent being, studying the will of his Creator in His works, wor- 
shipping Him by conforming to His laws, and reaping the 
rich rewards of enjoyment destined to him as the consequences 
of his fulfilling the objects of his being. By those means the 
Divine government is maintained simultaneously with man's 
freedom. 

The same propositions may be stated in regard to all 
the other parts of the human organism ; and hence it seems to 
follow, that God has revealed to man the laws according to 
which He dispenses life and health, and actually invited 
him to take a moral and intelligent part in acting out the 
scheme of His providence for his own advantage. 

The practical conclusion which I draw from these con- 
siderations is, that an intelligent individual who should know 
the structure, and functions, and laws of health, of the vital 
organs of the human body — the quality (i.e., whether strong or 
weak, sound or diseased) of the constitution which each of the 
thousand persons had inherited from his progenitors, — and the 
moral and physical influences to which each should be sub- 
jected, could predict, with a great approximation to accuracy, 
which of the thousand would die within the year. If this view 
be correct, the ten deaths in the thousand, which, in the pre- 
sent circumstances of social life, appear like the result of a 
fatal flat, would become merely the exponent of the number 
of individuals in whose persons the conditions of health and 
life had de facto been so far infringed as to produce the result 
under consideration ; without necessarily implying, either that 
these conditions are in themselves inscrutable, or that the 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



97 



course of action which violates them is unavoidable. The 
sway of fatalism would disappear, and in its place a govern- 
ment calculated to serve as a guide to the conduct of moral 
and intelligent beings would be revealed ; — a government, of 
which causation, regular in its action, certain in its effects, 
and scrutable in its forms, would constitute the foundation. 

Moreover, it would follow from this view, that in the ad- 
ministration of God's secular providence in consigning ten in- 
dividuals out of a thousand to the grave, and leaving nine 
hundred and ninety alive, as little of favouritism as of fatalism 
is to be discovered. The only sentence which each individual 
would find recorded regarding himself would be, that he must 
either fulfil the conditions of health, or suffer the consequences 
of infringing them. 

It may be objected that it is impossible for any one indi- 
vidual to acquire all the requisite information ; but this objec- 
tion is foreign to the question. The real point at issue is, 
whether this knowledge exists and is necessary to our well- 
being during life. If it is so, we must teach it in schools 
and from the pulpit as Divine truth, and we must train the 
young and counsel the adult to act on it in their habitual 
conduct. 

The greatest obstacle to this consummation is found in the 
difficulty of persuading the public mind that this knowledge 
is Divine truth, and that the practice of it is a religious 
duty. One cause of this difficulty appears to consist in cer- 
tain erroneous notions which are entertained concerning the 
nature and object of the sufferings which attend infractions 
of the laws of nature. The inflictions under human laws have 
no natural, and therefore no necessary, relation to the offence 
they punish. There is no natural relation, for example, 
between stealing and mounting the steps of a tread-mill. 
When, therefore, it is asserted that under the Divine govern- 
ment an individual, by infringing the laws of health, may 
incur disease and pain, and bring himself to a premature 
grave, many readers regard this as teaching that the result is 
a punishment, in the dictionary sense of the word — namely, 
an "infliction imposed in vengeance of a crime and when 
they think of their own deficient instruction, and of the 
difficulties in learning and obeying the laws of health, they 
are shocked by the idea of their being punished for this 
ignorance. But the difficulty disappears when the word is dif- 
ferently defined. By punishment, I mean the natural evil 
which follows the breach of each physical, organic, and moral 
law. I regard the natural consequence of the infraction, not 
only as inevitable, but as pre-ordained by the Divine Mind, for 

G 



98 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



a purpose : That purpose appears to me to be to deter intelli- 
gent beings from infringing the laws instituted by God for 
their welfare, and to preserve order in the world. When 
people, in general, think of physical laws, they perceive the 
consequences which these produce to be natural and inevitable ; 
but they do not sufficiently reflect upon the intentional pre- 
ordainment of these consequences, as a warning or instruction 
to intelligent beings for the regulation of their conduct. It is 
the omission of this element that renders the knowledge which 
is actually possessed of the natural laws, of so little use. 
The popular interpretations of Christianity have thrown the 
public mind so widely out of the track of God's natural pro- 
vidence, that His object or purpose in this pre-ordain men t is 
rarely thought of ; and the most flagrant, and even deliberate 
infractions of the natural laws, are spoken of as mere acts of 
imprudence, without the least notion that the infringer is 
contemning a rule deliberately framed for his guidance by 
Divine wisdom, and enforced by Divine power. 

In considering moral actions also, the public mind leaves 
out of view the natural and inevitable. Being accustomed 
to regard human punishment as arbitrary, and capable of 
abeyance or alteration, it views in the same light the inflic- 
tions asserted to take place under the natural moral law, and 
does not perceive divine pre-ordainment and purpose in the 
natural consequences of all moral actions. The great object 
which I have had in view in " The Constitution of Man/' is 
to shew that this notion is erroneous ; and that there is a 
natural pre-ordained consequence, which man can neither 
alter nor evade, attached to the infringement of every natural 
law. 

To express this idea correctly a term is required, something 
between simple " consequence " and " punishment/' The 
former fails to convey my idea in its totality, and the latter 
adds something to distort it. I find it difficult to discover an 
appropriate word ; but hope that this explanation will render 
the idea itself comprehensible. 

If, then, we could convey to the public mind a just appre- 
ciation of these principles, would it, or would it not, be possible 
for an intelligent person to acquire from his parents, his 
teachers, the pulpit, his medical advisers, books, and his own 
observation and experience, a knowledge of the conditions of 
life and health in relation to himself, sufficient for his guidance 
in the ordinary circumstances of life ? And I ask whether, if 
thus instructed in these rules, trained from his infancy to 
venerate and observe them as Divine institutions, and also 
supported in doing so by social manners and public opinion, 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



99 



he could then, in an adequate degree, comply with the con- 
ditions of health, and escape from the supposed fatal list ? I 
can perceive no reason for answering in the negative. If, in 
the first hundred years after the members of any community 
began to act on those principles, one individual in the thousand 
could escape from the list, and reduce the mortality to nine, 
the principle would be established ; and the question in sub- 
sequent centuries would be only, how far this knowlege and 
obedience could be carried. 

In point of fact, the records of mortality prove that the view 
now stated, correctly represents the principle on which the 
continuance of life is administered by the Divine Euler of the 
world. When read in connection with history, these records 
shew that if the intelligence, morality, industry, cleanliness, 
and orderly habits of a community be improved, there will be 
an increase in the duration of life in that people. Thus, in 
1786, the yearly rate of mortality for the whole of England 
and Wales was 1 in 42 ; or, in other words, 1 out of every 42 
of the whole inhabitants died annually. In the Seventh 
Annual Eeport of the Eegistrar-General (p. 19), it is stated 
that the rate of mortality for the whole of England, on an 
average of 7 years, ending in 1844, was 1 in 46. In the 
Registrar-General's Eeport for 1854 (p. 16), it is stated that 
" in round numbers 24 in 1000, or 1 in 43 of the people died 
in that year. This is greatly in excess of the average rate, 
which in the last 17 years was 2'245 ; that is, nearly 22 in 
1000, or in 1 in 45 of the population. The excess in the 
mortality was produced by an epidemic of cholera." This I 
shall shew subsequently was an avoidable evil. Allowing for 
some errors in the earlier reports and tables, the substantial 
fact remains incontestible, that the average duration of human 
life is increasing in England and Wales, and from the causes 
here assigned. 

Moreover, Professor Simpson, in a pamphlet on the value 
and necessity of the statistical method of inquiry as applied to 
various questions in operative surgery, presents direct evidence 
in support of the proposition which I am now maintaining. 

The following table, he says, calculated from the bills of 
mortality of London, demonstrates statistically that, in con- 
sequence of improvements in the practice of midwifery (and I 
should say also, in consequence of the improved habits and 
condition of the people), the number of deaths in childbed in 
that city in the nineteenth century was less by one-half than 
that which occurred in the seventeenth century. The table is 
the following : — 

g 2 



100 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



Average number of Mothers dying in childbed in London 
from 1660 to 1820. 

YEARS. PROPORTION OF MOTHERS. 

For 20 years ending in 1680 1 in every 44 delivered. 

For 20 years ending in 1700 1 ... 56 

For 20 years ending in 1720 1 ... 69 

For 20 years ending in 1740 1 ... 71 

For 20 years ending in 1760 1 ... 77 

For 20 years ending in 1780 1 ... 82 

For 20 years ending in 1800 1 ... 110 

For 20 years ending in 1820 1 ... 107 



It is probable that in the earlier years included in this 
table the records were more imperfect than they were in the 
later years, and that the difference of the mortality is in con- 
sequence exaggerated ; but, again making every reasonable 
allowance for errors and omissions, the grand result is still 
the same, a diminution of deaths from a more rigid conformity 
to the conditions according to which the Euler of the world 
dispenses the boon of life. 

Further, — the records of mortality, when arranged accord- 
ing to the different classes of society, and different localities 
of the same country, indicate the soundness of the same 
principle. The following results are presented by a report of 
the mortality in Edinburgh and Leith for the year 1846 : — 

The mean age at death of the 1st class, composed of gentry and 

professional men, was ..... 43i| years. 

The mean age at death of the 2d class, composed of merchants, 

master-tradesmen, clerks, &c, was . . . 36J years. 

The mean age at death of the 3d class, composed of artizans, 

labourers, servants, &c, was .... 27^ years. 

It is a reasonable inference from, although not necessarily 
implied in, this table, that the third class furnished a larger 
proportion of the ten deaths in the thousand persons between 
the ages of 20 and 30 than the 2d, and this class a larger pro- 
portion of them than the 1st ; and, as God is no respecter 
of artificial rank, that the differences in the proportions were 
the result of the individuals of the 1st and 2d classes having 
fulfilled more perfectly than those in the 3d, the conditions on 
which He proffers to continue with them His boon of life. 

One of the conditions of health is, that we shall breathe the 
atmosphere in that state in which God has prepared it and 
adapted it to the lungs and blood. A combination of oxygen, 
nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas, in definite proportions, exists 
in the air, and is exquisitely adapted to our frame. A great 
increase or diminution of the proportion of any one of these, 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



101 



or the introduction of certain other gases, is fatal to health, 
and eventually to life itself. 

Kegardless, however, of this Divine arrangement, the inha- 
bitants of Exeter, Liverpool, and many other towns, have, 
through ignorance and indolence, allowed the exhalations of 
decaying animal and vegetable matter to mingle with that com- 
pound atmosphere adapted by nature to their lungs and blood, 
and the consequence has been that many of them have suffered 
from disease, and prematurely died. On the 8th of December 
1846, a public meeting was held at Exeter, " to consider the 
sanitary condition of that city." The Mayor was in the chair, 
and among the persons present were Yiscount Ebrington, 
Sir J. Duckworth, M.P., Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Dr South- 
wood Smith, &c. A report was read by Mr Terrell, which 
" analysed the mortality of Exeter, and shewed that, while the 
deaths in .those parts of the city where there was good sewer- 
age and an ample supply of water were from 1*83 to 1*93 per 
cent, (per annum), in other parts, where the drainage was de- 
ficient, the mortality was 5 to 7 per cent." Mr Chadwick ob- 
served, that in infancy, " life is more susceptible than at any 
other period — infants, as it were live more on air/' " Now, 
what is the mortality at Exeter compared with Tiverton ? I 
find that, while one child out of every ten born at Tiverton 
dies within the year, — and one-tenth is the average of the 
county, — one in five dies at Exeter. And then, after its 
escape of the first year's mortality, it has not gone through all 
its chances. I find, farther, that while, in Tiverton, twenty- 
six per cent, die under the age of five years, in Exeter no less 
than forty-five per cent, die under the age of five years." 

When we trace these effects to their causes, is it not clear 
that that purity of the atmosphere which, by the appointment 
of the Author of Nature, is necessary to the support of life, 
had been destroyed by foul exhalations ; that the human in- 
tellect was capable of discovering and removing the sources 
of that corruption ; and that it was a duty which the inhabi- 
tants of Exeter owed equally to God and to themselves, to ap- 
ply the whole powers of their understandings and will to com- 
ply with the conditions of life ? Can there be a more becom- 
ing theme for the combined exercise of the intellect and reli- 
gious sentiments than that which is presented by such occur- 
rences as these, in which the voice of nature calls aloud on 
parents to save their children by yielding obedience to the 
Creator's laws ? Yet what occurs ? Mr Chadwick informs us. 
" Well," says he, " here, in this city, in one of the healthiest 
counties of the kingdom, with an admirable site, and with all 
favourable circumstances, you have an infantile mortality and 



102 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



slaughter that very nearly follows — very closely indeed — upon 
the infantile slaughter of Spitalfields, &c." 

The same gentleman mentioned that, " about three years 
ago, an epidemic raged in Glasgow, and there was scarcely a 
family, high or low, who escaped attacks from it. But at 
Glasgow they have an exceedingly well-appointed, well-ven- 
tilated prison ; and in that prison there was not a single case 
of epidemic ; and, in consequence of the overcrowding of the 
hospitals which killed some two thousand people, they took 
forty cases into the prison, and not one of them spread. In 
fact, there are so many classes of disease so completely within 
management, that medical men who have the care and cus- 
tody of those who are in comparatively well-conditioned places, 
are in the habit of saying, in relation to cases in their private 
practice, 1 Oh if I had but that case in prison, I could save it.' 
Now, what has your mortality to do with that disease here in 
Exeter ? I find that in Tiverton, while 23 out of 10,000 of 
the population are swept off by epidemic diseases, in Exeter no 
less than 103 are killed." 

Here, then, we see a man of science, whose understanding 
is enlightened by the study of chemistry and physiology, 
clearly unfolding to the people of Exeter certain relations es- 
tablished by the Author of Nature between the composition 
of the atmosphere and the human body, in consequence of the 
infringement of which thousands of their fellow-citizens have 
perished prematurely. Yet these infractions of the laws of 
nature were allowed to continue, year after year, under the 
eyes of the Bishop of Exeter, unheeded and unrestrained. Not 
only so ; but while his flock was thus dying from causes that 
were discoverable and removable, his Lordship was engaged 
in warmly denouncing, as irreligious, the Irish system of Na- 
tional Education, because it proposed to teach, under the name 
of secular instruction, unmingled with the leaven of the Thirty- 
Nine Articles of the Church, a knowledge of these very insti- 
tutions of the Creator, a due regard to which would have ena- 
bled the people to save their own lives and those of their chil- 
dren ! I do not doubt that he and his clergy duly consoled the 
dying, read the burial-service over the bodies of the dead, and 
comforted the bereaved parents whose cherished offspring were 
thus prematurely snatched from them by the hand of' death. 
But if these mournful effects followed, by God's appointment, 
from causes which were cognizable by human intelligence, 
and removable by human skill, why did they shrink from 
teaching the people to reverence this connection, and to avoid 
the evils, by acting on the lessons which it was reading to 
their understandings ? This would have tended in some de- 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



103 



gree to restore the sacredness of this universe, and that ear- 
nestness of the human mind, the disappearance of which reli- 
gious men so grievously deplore. 

So far from acting in this manner, these excellent and esti- 
mable persons not only treat the order of creation and its les- 
sons with neglect themselves, but by their cries of " infidelity" 
deter other men, who see and reverence its sacredness, from 
appealing to the nobler faculties of the mind with full practi- 
cal effect in its behalf. What a soul-stirring theme did not 
the facts now detailed offer to Mr Chadwick and his brother 
philanthropists, for an appeal to the sentiment of Veneration 
of the people of Exeter, to induce them to bring these evils to 
a close ! But no : science, divorced from religion, dared not 
to trespass on such a field. Unfortunately, also, in the minds 
of the suffering members of the Bishop's flock, there was no 
adequate knowledge of science on which to found an appeal 
to their religious sentiments. The speakers, therefore, could 
urge only the humbler motives of economy and prudence. 

" Now," says Mr Chadwick, " while, amidst this population of the Ti- 
verton district (32,499), in Tiverton 610 die, no less than 920 die in Exeter. 
That makes an excess of deaths due to Exeter of 332 deaths in the year. 
The expense of a funeral is certainly not less than L.5 on the average. 
Taking it at L.5, your expenses in funerals, for the excess of funerals com- 
pared with Tiverton during the year, are . . . L.1600 
Every case of death involves at least 29 cases of sickness, 

which, at L.7 per case, is an annual expense of . 9265 
Besides that, you have a loss of labour four years and 
eleven months by premature death, as compared with 
Tiverton, which, on the excess of this year's mortality, 
makes a sum, supposing wages to be 7s. 6d. weekly per 
adult, on the average (and a very low average), of . 39,000 

Making a total charge to this city of at least . . L. 49,865 

Say L. 50,000 a-year. And that does not take into account anything for 
the loss of the maintenance of the children that have been swept away, 
nothing for the extensive amount of premature widowhood, for the large 
amount of orphanage, you will find burdening your charities." 

This is a truly English argument, employed to induce a 
people suffering from gross infringements of the order of na- 
ture, to remove the causes of pestilence and death from their 
dwellings ! I greatly err in my estimate of the mental facul- 
ties of Mr Chadwick, if he is not as deeply impressed with the 
" sacredness of this universe, and of this human life itself," 
as he is obviously alive to the emotions of benevolence ; and 
if he would not have felt his power over his audience greatly 
increased, if he had found their understandings so far enlight- 



104 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



ened, that lie could have ventured to appeal to their religious 
sentiments in order to give weight and authority to his words. 
Not only, however, was the knowledge of nature wanting in 
them, hut an appeal to it, in connection with the religious 
sentiments, might have been regarded by religious men as in- 
fidelity, while by some men of science it would probably have 
been ridiculed as " cant and a creed." Such is the predica- 
ment into which the teaching of the order of nature as a guide 
to human conduct under the sanction of the religious senti- 
ments, has been brought by English education! No safe course 
was left to Mr Chadwick, but the one which he pursued, that 
of addressing the lower faculties of the people — their acquisi- 
tiveness and fear ! 

I do not question the force of the arguments addressed to 
these faculties ; because nature is so arranged, that when we 
depart from her paths in one direction, we are liable to fall 
into a multitude of errors, each accompanied by its own pecu- 
liar evils. Pecuniary loss is one of the natural consequences 
of bad health ; but the consideration of that infliction is not 
one of the highest or most efficacious motives with which to 
rouse a well-educated people to remove from their hearths the 
causes of disease and death. 

Instructive evidence of the possibility of diminishing the 
amount of premature deaths by compliance with the laws of 
health, is presented in a " Letter of the President of the 
General Board of Health," to the Home Secretary of State, 
and in a "Keport" annexed to it, "from Dr Sutherland on 
Epidemic Cholera in the Metropolis in 1854." It is mentioned 
that " cholera is now (6th September 1854) very widely pre- 
valent in London ; up to the 2d September 4070 persons have 
died of the disease in the metropolis alone. I purpose to 
direct inquiries into the conditions which attend the presence 
of the epidemic so far as they can be gathered from meteoro- 
logical, microscopical, and chemical observation : — 

" The evidence on the localizing conditions of cholera given 
in the report of Dr Sutherland (which is, as I have stated, 
an abstract of the reports of the Medical Inspectors), points to 
the following as among the more prominent of the removable 
causes of zymotic* disease : — 

1. Open ditches used as sewers. 

2. Want of sewers. 

*" This term includes the various epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases, such 
as fever, smallpox, &c, which originate, or are supposed to originate, from a morbid 
poison being introduced into, and gradually extending itself throughout the system." — 

Dr Spencer Thomson s Dictionary of Domestic Medicine. 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



105 



3. Badly constructed sewers, accumulating deposits and gene- 

rating sewer gases. 

4. The pollution of the atmosphere in streets and within houses, 

from untrapped gulleys and drains, and from sewer-venti- 
lating openings in streets. 

5. Cesspools accumulating and retaining excrementitious 

matters close to and under dwelling-houses, whereby 
the air is contaminated and the subsoil saturated with 
filth. 

6. Want of house drainage. 

7. Improperly constructed house drainage. 

8. Defective paving in alleys, courts, and back yards. 

9. The absence of any organized daily system of cleansing, 

and the consequent retention of house refuse in and near 
dwellings. 

10. Bad water, badly distributed. 

11. Eecurring nuisances. 

12. Unwholesome trades, such as private slaughter-houses in 
crowded localities, bone-boiling and crushing, manure 
making, and other trades evolving vapours containing 
organic and other noxious matters. 

13. Unwholesome vapours exhaled from the Thames, in con- 
sequence of the water being polluted by the sewage of 
the metropolis. 

14. Structural defects of dwelling houses, such as houses 
built in rows, back to back. Cellar habitations. Neigh- 
bourhoods the houses of which are closely packed together, 
with narrow overcrowded streets, alleys, and courts, so 
constructed as to prevent ventilation. Houses absolutely 
unfit for human habitation. Filthy, unventilated, and 
overcrowded houses, let to tenants by the week, or for 
other periods less than a year. 

Lastly, and applying to all these, 

15. Multiplicity of local authorities, and the want of suffi- 
cient powers in such authorities to deal with these 
evils. 

" Great as these evils are in London, they are not greater, in 
comparison to the extent of the metropolis, than in other large 
cities and towns, and there is not one among them that cannot 
be remedied if proper steps be taken." 

Dr Sutherland, in Table I. in the Appendix, gives the weekly 
statistics from the beginning of 1854 till the decline of 
cholera. "Assuming the 1st of July as the commencement 
of the epidemic, and the 16th December as its termination, 
the following table will represent the total mortality from 



106 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



cholera, diarrhoea, typhus, and other zymotic diseases, as con- 
trasted with the mortality from all causes.* 

DEATHS. 

Cholera, 10,675 

Diarrhoea, 2,601 

Typhus, 1,347 

All Zymotic Diseases, 19,413 

All Causes, 40,599 

" Although there were deaths from cholera over the whole of 
the metropolis, the mortality was very unequally distributed. 

" On the north side of the Thames, among a population of 
1,745,701 (at the last census) it was 4948, or one death from 
cholera to 353 inhabitants ; while on the south side of the river 
the deaths, out of a population of 616,635, amounted to 5729, 
or in the proportion of one death to every 108 inhabitants. The 
mortality on the south side was thus above threefold, in propor- 
tion to the population, what it was on the north side of the river. 

" The mortality in the districts north of the Thames was by 
no means equally distributed, but was, generally speaking, 
greatest on the lowest levels, with one marked exception, 
namely, the virulent outbreak of cholera in part of the parish 
of St James, Westminster, which I shall make the subject of 
a separate report/' 

Dr Sutherland illustrates the beneficial effects of sanitary 
improvements in the following words : — 

" In the newly-constructed model dwellings and lodging- 
houses, all the evils and neglects existing in the same class of 
dwellings in other parts of the metropolis are as far as possible 
avoided. 

" There are neither cesspools, ashpits, nor nuisances; all the 
houses have waterclosets ; and there is an abundant water 
supply, and suitable means of ventilation are provided. 

" The same improvements have been extended to the altered 
houses as far as it was practicable, and the results as regards 
the late epidemic cholera, for the seven establishments belong- 
ing to the Society for the Improvement of the Dwellings of 
the Labouring Classes, are thus stated in a communication 
received from the secretary : 

" 1st, Model houses for families, Streatham Street, Blooms- 
bury, 53 families, numbering 306 inmates, amongst whom six 
cases of diarrhoea have occurred, all of which speedily yielded 
to medical treatment. 

* Besides the deaths from cholera given in the table there were 3 deaths registered 
on the week ending December 23d, and 2 deaths on the week ending the 30th. The 
total mortality from cholera during the year 1854 was therefore 10,696. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



107 



" 2d, Thanksgiving model-buildings, Portpool Lane, Gray's 
Inn Lane, 26 families, and 66 females, or 166 inmates. Not 
a single case of sickness. 

" 3d, Model-buildings, Bagnigge "Wells, 23 families and 30 
aged females, or 175 inmates. Not one case of sickness. 

"4th, Model lodging-house, George Street, St Giles', 104 
inmates, without a case of either disease. 

" 5th, Model lodging-house, Charles Street, Drury Lane, 82 
inmates, five cases of diarrhoea, very slight, and these were 
confined to men employed in the neighbourhood of the 
Tower and docks, and returned unwell. One case of cholera 
occurred, which can hardly be said to have been contracted in 
the house, as the individual had suffered from 19 days' neglected 
diarrhoea, and was in a state of great destitution. He died at 
King's College Hospital. 

" 6th, Model lodging-house, King Street, Drury Lane, 25 
inmates, not a case of either disease. 

" 7th, Hatton Garden Chambers, Hatton Garden, 28 inmates, 
but having accommodation for 58. No sickness whatever. 

" The houses numbered 4, 5, 6, and 7, are for single men. 

" Mr George Glover, who was requested by the President of 
the General Board of Health to inspect the model lodging- 
houses of the metropolis after the decline of the epidemic, has 
reported in regard to the buildings belonging to the Metro- 
politan Association, that in the Old Pancras Eoad buildings, 
containing a population of 693 persons, there was no cholera, 
but a few slight cases of diarrhoea, only four of which required 
medical treatment. 

" In the Soho Chambers, with an average nightly population 
of 88, there was no cholera during the epidemic, and only 
seven cases of diarrhoea. This house is situated in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the houses so frightfully visited by cholera in 
the parish of St J ames, Westminster. 

" In the premises in Pelham Street and Pleasant Eow, with 
an average population of 120, there have been no deaths either 
from cholera or diarrhoea. 

"In the Albert Street Chambers, Spitalfields,alodging-house, 
with an average population of 200, there were three cases of 
diarrhoea and two cases of cholera. One of the cases, how- 
ever, was taken ill in Smithfield market and was removed to 
the London Hospital, where he recovered. 

" The other case, which proved fatal, took place in a man 
lodger who ate stale crab, offensive to the smell, for supper 
and breakfast, and fell a victim to an error of diet which no 
improved sanitary condition could neutralize. 

" In Albert Street dwellings for families, containing 354 



108 



GOVERNMENT OF THE MORAL WORLD. 



inhabitants, there were three slight cases of diarrhoea, but 
there were four deaths from cholera, all confined to one family, 
which shews that there must have been some peculiar cause 
at work in that one case. 

" This family consisted of a man, his wife, and eight chil- 
dren, who occupied a house of three small rooms, which 
allowed only 276 J cubic feet of sleeping space for each indi- 
vidual. Now experience has shewn that during cholera epi- 
demics, about 500 cubic feet are required for safety. Mr 
Glover considers it probable that insufficient nourishment had 
also much to do with the attack. 

" Besides the model dwellings belonging to the two so- 
cieties, there is a street of 80 tenements, in St George's in 
the East, built on the plan proposed by His Eoyal Highness 
Prince Albert, and shewn in Hyde Park, at the Great Exhi- 
bition of 1851. They occupy the site of some property the 
inhabitants of which suffered most severely from cholera in 
1849. These dwellings contain a population of about 450, 
and they all escaped the epidemic. 

" The experience so far as concerns the results of sanitary 
improvements is most satisfactory, although it also shews that 
other things require to be attended to in order to ensure 
security from epidemic disease." 

Dr South wood Smith, in his instructive work on " The 
Philosophy of Health," shews the connection between longe- 
vity and happiness. " By a certain amount and intensity 
of misery," says he, " life may be suddenly destroyed ; by a 
smaller amount and intensity, it may be slowly worn out 
and exhausted. The state of the mind affects the physical 
condition ; but the continuance of life is wholly dependent on 
the physical condition : it follows that in the degree in which 
- the state of the mind is capable of affecting the physical con- 
dition, it is capable of influencing the duration of life. 

" Were the physical condition always perfect, and the 
mental state always that of enjoyment, the duration of life 
would always be extended to the utmost limit compatible with 
that of the organization of the body. But as this fortunate 
concurrence seldom or never happens, human life seldom or 
never numbers the full measure of its days. Uniform expe- 
rience shews, however, that, provided no accident occur to 
interrupt the usual course, in proportion as body and mind 
approximate to this state, life is long ; and as they recede 
from it, it is short. Improvement of the physical condition 
affords a foundation for the improvement of the mental state ; 
improvement of the mental state improves, up to a certain 



LIFE AND DEATH. 



109 



point, the physical condition ; and in the ratio in which this 
twofold improvement is effected, the duration of life in- 
creases. 

" Longevity, then, is a good, in the first place, because it is 
a sign and a consequence of the possession of a certain amount 
of enjoyment ; and, in the second place, because this being the 
case, of course in proportion as the term of life is extended, 
the sum of enjoyment must be augmented. And this view of 
longevity assigns the cause, and shews the reasonableness of 
that desire for long life which is so universal and constant as 
to be commonly considered instinctive. Longevity and hap- 
piness, if not invariably, are generally, coincident. 

" If there may be happiness without longevity, the converse 
is not possible : there cannot be longevity without happiness. 
Unless the state of the body be that of tolerable health, and 
the state of the mind that of tolerable enjoyment, long life is 
unattainable : these physical and mental conditions no longer 
existing, nor capable of existing, the desire of life and the 
power of retaining it cease together." 

The same conclusion follows from these facts — that life is 
administered according to regular laws, which some persons 
obey to a greater extent than others ; and that a knowledge 
of the causes which favour the endurance of life, and of those 
which produce disease and death, is an acquaintance with the 
order of God's providence in this grand department of the 
government of the world. If this be the case, can we doubt 
that the relations of cause and effect, in virtue of which life 
is preserved, and death ensues, have been rendered by God 
cognisable by the human understanding, with the design of 
serving as guides to human conduct ?* 



SECTION IV. — OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF HUMAN ACTIONS. 

The idea here presents itself, that, as an intimate knowledge 
of the structure, functions, and laws of the vital organs of the 
body, is apparently the true key to the right understanding 
of the order of God's secular providence in dispensing health 

* While this sheet is in the press, a friend has sent me the following publications, 
lately issued by the " Secretary to the Glasgow City Missions," and I cannot sufficiently 
commend this Institution for the sound principle displayed in their circulation of these 
tracts, and for the practical character of the works themselves. If the precepts which 
they teach had been presented to the people as religious truths, founded on the laws of 
God embodied in their constitutions, and if obedience to these laws had been enforced 
directly as religious duties, the City Mission would have made a still greater step in 
advance of the general practice of missionary societies. The tracts are, — " Fever Poisons 
in our Streets and Homes, by Robert Pail-man, Surgeon ;" " Friendly Hints to the 
Working Classes ; " and " Sanitary Reform." 



110 DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF HUMAN ACTIONS. 

and life, and disease and death, to individuals, — it is possible 
that, in like manner, an intimate acquaintance with the 
functions, relations, and laws of the organs of the mind, will 
open the path to the discovery of the mode in which the 
Divine government of human conduct is maintained. 

CRIME. 

One of the most striking anomalies in the moral govern- 
ment of the world consists in the wide-spreading magnitude 
and frequency of crime. Is it possible to discover whence it 
arises ? Is it a direct result of the institutions of the Creator, 
or does it spring from abuses of faculties that are in them- 
selves good ? Statistical inquiries into human conduct 
present the same striking indications of uniformity in results 
as do those into the endurance of life. Mons. Quetelet 
furnishes us with the following table relative to crime in 
France : — 





Accused and 
brought per- 
sonally be- 
fore the 
Tribunals. 




Number 
of Inha- 


Number 
condemn- 
ed out of 
each 100 
accused. 


Accused of Crime 


Propor- 
tion 
between 
these 
classes. 


Years. 


Condemned. 


bitants 
for each 
person 
accused. 


Against 
the per- 
son. 


Against 
Property. 


1826 


6,988 


4,348 


4457 


62 


1,907 


5,081 


2-7 


1827 


6,929 


4,236 


4593 


61 


1,911 


5,018 


2-6 


1828 


7,396 


4,551 


4307 


61 


1,844 


5,552 


3-0 


1829 


7,373 


4,475 


4321 


61 


1,791 


5,582 


3-1 


Total 


28,686 


17,610 


4463 


61 


7,453 


21,233 





" Thus," says Mons. Quetelet, " although we do not yet 
possess the statistical returns for 1830, it is highly probable 
that we shall find, for that year also, 1 person accused out of 
every 4463 inhabitants, and 61 condemned out of each 100 
accused. The probability becomes less for 1831, and less for 
the succeeding years. We are in the same condition for esti- 
mating, by the results of the past, the facts which we shall see 
realised in the future. This possibility of assigning before- 
hand the number of the accused and condemned which should 
occur in a country, is calculated to lead to serious reflections, 
since it involves the fate of several thousands of human beings, 
who are impelled, as it were, by an irresistible necessity, to 
the bars of the tribunals, and towards the sentences of con- 
demnation which there await them. These conclusions flow 
directly from the principle, already so often stated in this 
work, that effects are in proportion to their causes, and that 



DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF HUMAN ACTIONS. 



Ill 



the effects remain the same if the causes which have produced 
them do not vary."* 

The same uniformity is observable in Great Britain. A 
return to the House of Commons, dated 22d May 1846, shews 
the number of persons committed to prison for each of seven- 
teen different denominations of offences, including robbery, 
housebreaking, arson, forgery, rape, and so forth, for two 
different periods of five years each, one while the offences 
were capital, and one after they had ceased to be so punished. 
The result is the following : — 

Number of persons committed for the foregoing crimes during the 
five years immediately preceding the abolition of the punish- 
ment of death, ....... 7276 

Number of ditto during the five years immediately succeeding the 

abolition of the punishment of death, .... 7120 

The first aspect of these facts suggests the idea that fatalism 
is the principle of government in the moral world also ; and 
the questions must again be solved — Whether the causes 
which produce these constant results are scrutable by man ? 
and if so, whether he is capable of modifying them ; if not, 
whether he is capable of adapting his conduct to their action 
in such a manner as beneficially to vary their results ? It is 
remarkable that in all ages, lawgivers have acted on the 
principle that human volitions are absolutely free ; for they 
have directly forbidden certain actions, and enacted punish- 
ments against those who committed them, without making 
any inquiry into the power of their subjects to obey the law. 
Even in modern times, and in the face of statistical returns 
such as those now quoted, shewing a constant succession of 
crimes only partially influenced in amount by the punishments 
inflicted, and proclaiming, with trumpet tongue, the existence 
of causes lying deeper than mere punishments can reach, the 
rulers of nations proceed in their course of assuming absolute 
freedom. They proclaim the law, and inflict punishment for 
disobedience, irrespective of the mental condition and physical 
circumstances of their subjects. They have partially succeeded 

• Sur L'Homme, &c, tome ii. p. 168. 

The author of " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," edition 1844, p. 328, 
gives the number who commit a crime in France as 1 in 650 of the French people per 
annum. 

And Joseph Fletcher, in " Moral Statistics in England and Wales " (population 
when he wrote about 16,500,000) printed for private distribution, and in possession of a 
friend, gives the number of persons committed annually, in these two departments of 
the United Kingdom, at 23 280, or about 1 in 700 inhabitants. 

In September 1856, I waited on Mons. Quetelet in Brussels, and asked him if he 
could throw any light on the discrepancies between these statements and his own ; 
when he informed me that his facts and figures were taken from official returns of 
crime in France (which he offered to shew me), and that he had the fullest confidence 
in their accuracy. I consider his authority, therefore, as the most to be relied on. 



112 



DIVINE GOVEKNMENT OF HUMAN ACTIONS. 



in checking crime, but they must confess also to much failure 
and disappointment. What, however, is the sound conclusion 
to be drawn from the facts before us ? 

The regularity observable in the numbers of criminals indi- 
cates the existence of regularly operating causes of crime. 
The first step in the investigation, therefore, must be to 
discover these. Several causes are generally recognised by 
reflecting men ; such as, want of education, bad example, des- 
titution, and so forth. These, however, do not serve to ac- 
count satisfactorily for the phenomena ; for out of a thousand 
ersons all equally deficient in education, equally exposed to 
ad example, and equally destitute, only a definite and con- 
stant number (say ten) will become criminals in any one year 
in which the external circumstances of all continue unchanged. 
This fact shews that the primary causes of crime, be they what 
they may, affect some and not other individuals ; and until 
we discover what these are, we shall never understand whether 
crime is a direct or a contingent result of the Divine institu- 
tions ; or whether human intelligence is capable of modifying 
human conduct in reference to these institutions so as to 
diminish or remove it. Moreover, until we make this dis- 
covery, these causes, although removable, must and will pro- 
duce unvarying and constant results, as if they were the mere 
instruments of an overwhelming fatalism.* 

The. solution of this problem extends far beyond the depart- 
ment of mere criminal legislation. It involves the whole 
question of God's government of the moral world ; of man's 
freedom, and of the nature of his responsibility in this world. 
If the common assumption, that the will of man is absolutely 
free, were founded in fact, then God could exercise no direct 
control over the moral world ; for the control of a superior 
necessarily implies limitation of freedom in the servient 
agent. If, on the other hand, He exercises an inscrutable 
and irresistible sway, dooming thousands to commit crime, 
and to become the victims of the tribunals erected and admin- 
istered by their more favoured brethren, every notion of a 
moral government of the world must be abandoned. On such 
a supposition man could enjoy no freedom, and his only duty 
would be that of submission in despair. 

I have already hinted at the causes why this branch of 
knowledge is involved in such apparently hopeless obscurity. 
The means by which the moral administration of the world is 
conducted have been unknown, and hence the scheme of 
government could not be comprehended. If there be any part 

* The causes of crime are investigated in my work on " The Principles of Criminal 
Legislation and Prison Discipline." 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN. 



113 



of the human system by means of which all the desires, 
emotions, and intellectual powers of man act, and are acted 
upon by external objects and beings, it appears to follow, that 
by studying its constitution, functions, laws, and relations, in 
the same spirit and manner as we do those of the ear, or the 
eyes, or the lungs, and with analogous objects in view, we 
may be able to discover the mode in which it has pleased 
God to govern the world of mind ; and that then also we may be 
in a condition to judge whether the causes of moral actions in 
general are subjected to any natural laws, and whether the moral 
being himself can exercise any control over those laws, or mo- 
dify their results by accommodating his conduct to their sway. 

If, subject to natural laws, there be organs which subserve 
the action of all the mental powers of man, the Divine govern- 
ment may have its foundation in, and maintain its authority 
by means of, those organs and their relations, just as that 
government is maintained over health and life through the 
medium of the laws to which the vital organs have been sub- 
jected. If man be capable of discovering those organs, of 
modifying them, or of accommodating his conduct to their 
action, so as to vary their results, then will he, within certain 
limits, be a free and intelligent agent ; and his responsibility 
will be established by the fact, that while over the constitu- 
tion, relations, and laws of the organs and faculties themselves, 
and the consequences of good and evil attached to the use and 
abuse of them, he will have no command ; yet, by choosing 
between obedience and disobedience, he will enjoy that kind 
of freedom which consists in selecting results. It may be 
objected that, in this world, there is no mind distinct from 
the cerebral organs : But even assuming this to be the case, 
the thinking and feeling power embodied in these organs is 
endowed with self-consciousness, perception, judgment, and 
will, and, within certain limits, is capable of self-modification, 
and of acting on external objects so as to produce, with fore- 
thought and design, good or evil effects : The conclusions now 
stated, therefore, are not affected by this assumption. 

Consciousness reveals to us our own mental powers, but it 
does not inform us of the existence and influence of their 
organs. By observing the organs, however, in connection with 
mental action, we discover that their size and condition deter- 
mine the energy and activity of the faculties, and the faculties 
produce the moral phenomena of the world. A knowledge of 
the functions of the brain, then, appears to me to be an impor- 
tant key to the method of the moral government of man. 
Moreover, each mental force has a sphere of action as certainly 
regulated as are the spheres of action of the physical forces, and 

H 



114 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN. 



its action produces good or evil to man, according as it oper- 
ates in conformity or in opposition to the natural qualities of 
other beings and objects. 

A mother, for example, will love her offspring strongly or 
weakly, according to the size and activity of the organ of 
Philoprogenitiveness. The size of the organ, therefore, is, 
ceteris paribus, an index to the strength of that affection in 
the mother. But the well-being of the child does not depend 
on parental love alone. This affection is hedged in by external 
objects, and it must act in accordance with their qualities. 
Air, food, temperature, ignorantly or wisely administered, will 
kill or invigorate the child. Thus the physical and mental 
constitution of the child, the relations of that constitution to 
physical objects, and also to the mental forces manifested by 
other beings, will, ceteris paribus, determine the duration of 
its life, the character and extent of its natural capacities and 
dispositions, and the degree of happiness or suffering which it 
will experience in this world. When the mental forces are 
very great, they, within certain limits, control and triumph 
over external circumstances. Napoleon Buonaparte, by the 
force of a large and very active brain, rose from a private station 
to the commandof an empire. Louis-Philippe, by an ill-balanced 
and partially defective brain, fell from the throne to which he 
had been raised by the spontaneous act of the French people, 

Until physical evidence of mental qualities, and of the con- 
ditions under which they act, was reached, it was impossible 
to discover a solid basis either for mental philosophy or 
natural religion. In mental philosophy one investigator denied 
the existence of one faculty, and another that of another, in- 
fluenced apparently by the condition of the organ in his own 
brain. The extent of the natural differences in the faculties 
of different individuals, and the effects of these on their emo- 
tional and intellectual capacities and experiences, were inap- 
preciable ; and, moreover, the objects and relations of each 
faculty, and the conditions under which its permanent gratifi- 
cation is possible or impossible, could not be traced : How, 
then, could such a philosophy acquire a precise and practical 
character ? Again, while the means by which God governs 
the world of mind — the causes, for example, which render 
one man naturally vigorous, and another weak, in intellect, 
one naturally beneficent, another mischievous, one naturally 
pious, and another incapable of feeling a religious emotion, 
and so forth — were unknown, human sagacity could not un- 
ravel the principles of the Divine government in this depart- 
ment of nature. Moreover, in such a state of ignorance, a re- 
ligion consistent with that government could not be evolved. 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN. 



115 



The reader is respectfully reminded, that I am here en- 
deavouring to unfold only a general idea of the means by 
which the method of the Divine government may be most 
successfully investigated, and that I put forth no pretensions 
to a full and systematic exposition of that government. This 
must be the work of ages. But if we try the philosophy and 
natural religion of Socrates and Plato, and those of Paley and 
Dr Thomas Brown, by their fitness for guiding us in the 
practical affairs of individual and social life ; and if, in the 
latter, we perceive no superiority corresponding to the lapse 
of the period of two thousand years which intervened between 
them, we may be permitted to suspect some deficiency in the 
means of investigation hitherto pursued. However imperfect, 
therefore, the results of the new method may now appear, the 
equitable test of its merits would be, to pursue it for two 
thousand years more, and then to compare the personal and 
social improvements which it had enabled mankind to reach, 
with those which the existing methods have been able to 
produce. 

Let us now proceed to consider more closely the instru- 
ments by means of which the moral government of the world 
appears to be conducted. 

As the brain and nervous system seem to be important 
instruments, by means of which this government is main- 
tained, we may inquire first into the effects of size in 
the brain. An eloquent writer in the 94th number of the 
Edinburgh Keview, has observed, that "It is in the nervous 
system alone that we can trace a gradual progress in the 
provision for the subordination of one (animal) to another, 
and of all to man ; and are enabled to associate every faculty 
which gives superiority, with some addition to the nervous 
mass, even from the smallest indications of sensation and will 
up to the highest degree of sensibility, judgment, and expres- 
sion." " The brain is observed progressively to be improved 
in its structure, and, with reference to the spinal marrow and 
nerves, augmented in volume more and more, until we reach 
the human brain — each addition being marked by some addi- 
tion to, or amplification of, the powers of the animal — until 
in man we behold it possessing some parts of which animals 
are destitute, and wanting none which theirs possess/' There 
is an assent to these propositions by scientific physiologists 
in general, and the facts embodied in them lay the founda- 
tion of our present inquiries. The influence of size in the 
brain of man is easily ascertained. If it be under thirteen 
inches in horizontal circumference, although the functions of 

h 2 



116 



EFFECTS OF SIZE IN THE BRAIN*. 



animal life may be maintained, moral and intellectual imbe- 
cility, amounting to idiotcy more or 
less complete, will be an invariable 
accompaniment. Idiotcy may arise 
from diseases or injuries of the brain, 
which do not affect its size; but great 
deficiency of size is one and an inva- 
riable cause of idiotcy. 

Here, then, is one most important 
fact in the moral government of the 
world. The power of mental mani- 
festation is extremely defective where 
the brain is very small. The law of 
organization unfolded in this fact does 
not stop here ; but the proposition may be extended to the 
affirmation that mental power in general bears a relation to the 
size of the brain, and that, cceteris paribus, the larger the brain, 
within the limits of health, the greater will be the aggregate 
mental power. 

Highly important consequences in the moral government of 
the world follow from this fact. In private and in public life, 
other conditions being equal, the large brain will act with more 
energy, clear away more successfully obstacles that impede its 
path, exert a more powerful influence in society, and rise to 
greater eminence, than the small brain. This fact will be found 
one means of explaining the conquests of nations. The brain 
of the Peruvian Indian is greatly smaller than the Spanish 
brain, the Hindoo brain is smaller than the Anglo-Saxon ; and 
hence one great cause of the facility with which the inferior 
races were overcome by the larger-headed races. The Arauca- 
nians, with brains more nearly equal to those of the Spaniards, 
successfully resisted them. (See Phren. Jour., vol. iii. p. 432.) 
In revolutions, and in political action under free governments, 
large size of brain is, cceteris paribus, a highly important ele- 
ment of social influence, and in the ordinary business of life 
the same fact holds good. 

The female brain is less than the male brain, besides being 
more delicate in structure. Sir William Hamilton states the 
average weight of the Scotch male brain to be 3 lb. 8 oz. troy, 
and of the female 3 lb. 4 oz. troy. In the superior size of the 
male brain we perceive the instrumentality by means of which 
the female has been rendered subordinate to the male in the 
moral government of the world. The other portions of the 
organisms of the two sexes are constituted in relation to the 
mental capacities and dispositions bestowed on each through 
the medium of the brain. 




EFFECTS OF SIZE IN THE BKAIN. 



117 



There are various causes which modify the influence of 
size in the brain : The temperaments, the effects of which 
are described in the standard works on Phrenology; also 
a feeble structure inherited from progenitors in whom the 
brain has been diseased, or of defective constitution ; diseases 
of the lungs or organs of nutrition, which impair the quality 
of the blood that supplies the brain; impure air habitually 
breathed; low, damp localities; excessively severe climates, 
as in the narrow valleys of the Alps ; excessive bodily or 
mental exertion ; intemperance in food or drink; absence of 
education, and moral and intellectual training, and so forth ; — 
all these tend to diminish the influence of size, and their 
opposites to increase it. Therefore, these also must be studied 
as portions of the means by which the moral government of 
the world is conducted. 

I have seen men, born to wealth, squander it through sheer 
inability to retain it, resulting from a small or ill-constituted 
brain ; others sink in death under exertions which exceeded 
the powers of their brains ; others fail in their professional 
pursuits, and die in poverty and obscurity; others, when raised 
to places of political or social trust and power, greatly disappoint 
expectations ; all through deficiency of size in the brain. 

Is not this, then, a chapter of revelation offered by God to 
the human understanding, regarding the means by which He 
conducts the moral government of the world ? The causes of 
these occurrences have hitherto been unknown, and hence the 
events have been regarded as inscrutable. Eeligious men 
have met them by prayer and resignation, and looked, through 
faith, to heaven as the scene where the sufferers should be 
rewarded, and what they regarded as justice be finally dis- 
pensed. Philosophers have borne the evils with courage and 
resignation, as inevitable and inscrutable. If we have aban- 
doned belief in the miraculous interference, in modern times, 
of Divine power in the moral world, these phenomena will ap- 
parently remain for ever inexplicable, until we shall approach 
them in some such manner as we are now doing. Begarded 
as results of the condition of the brain, they become intel- 
ligible, and indicate to us a practical line of conduct in dealing 
with them. We may then hope for better success than has 
attended our past administration of our worldly well-being. 

Another important inquiry presents itself — whether man is 
capable of exerting any influence over the size and condition 
of the brain ? Here the answer must be in the affirmative. 
Our power in this department will be found equal to, probably 
greater than, our influence over inorganic substances and 
agencies. " If," says Dr Combe, " two persons, each naturally 



118 



EFFECTS OF SIZE IN THE BRAIN. 



of an excitable and delicate nervous temperament, choose to 
unite for life, and especially if they marry at a very early age, 
when the natural excitability of the system is at the highest, 
it will be almost impossible to prevent the concentrated influ- 
ence of these peculiarities from destroying the health of their 
offspring, and subjecting them to all the miseries of nervous 
disease, madness, or melancholy. Even where no hereditary 
defect exists, the state of the mother during pregnancy has an 
influence on the mental character and health of the offspring 
of which few parents have any adequate conception, but with 
which every mother ought to be familiar/'* 

It is foreign to the object of the present work to describe in 
detail the means by which the size and condition of the brain 
of man may be improved. The ordinary treatises on Physiology 
and Hygiene throw some light on the subject ; but, correctly 
speaking, this is still a grand terra incognita, on which few 
competently qualified explorers have entered. The cause of 
this backward state of things is easily discerned. Physiolo- 
gists, and, still more, the public, are not aware of the influence 
of the size and condition of the brain in producing moral phe- 
nomena ; and therefore neglect the study of it. Divines in 
general also have not a notion of the fact that the brain is the 
instrument through which God conducts the moral govern- 
ment of the world, and that the mental phenomena with which 
they professionally deal, are dependent on its condition ; and 
hence they neglect the study of the brain. A few more gene- 
rations, therefore, must pass away, and new minds must be 
gradually indoctrinated in these views before a serious inves- 
tigation of them will be commenced. Eesults will then pro- 
bably be discerned to be placed within human control, which, 
if here predicated, would appear to the present generation as 
pure extravagance. 

These observations apply to the brain considered as a whole ; 
let us next advert to its individual parts as the organs of moral 
forces. 

SECTION V. — MEANS BY WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL HUMAN FACULTIES, 
AS MORAL FORCES, ARE REGULATED IN THEIR ACTION. 

In a state of gross intellectual ignorance, human beings in 
some degree resemble the condition in which the lower 
animals would find themselves, if endowed with their present 
desires, without instinctive guidance how to gratify them. 
Suppose a brace of birds attached to each other by Amative- 
ness and Adhesiveness, and desirous of rearing young ; but 

* Physiology applied to Health and Education, 14th Edition, pp. 256-7, 



Regulation of individual moral forces, 119 

deprived of the instincts which now guide them, and destitute 
of all knowledge of a nest, and of the materials and method 
of constructing one, the results would he disastrous. The 
female would be forced to lay her eggs unprotected upon the 
ground, many of them would probably be destroyed, and she 
would not know how to hatch those that remained. In regard 
to many things essential to his well-being, the native New 
Hollander, through deficiency in certain cerebral organs, 
stands in a somewhat similar predicament. The bird is 
directed, by a wisdom superior to its own, what it should do to 
hatch its eggs, and how to do it. In place of this guidance, 
man has received observing and reflecting faculties to enable 
him to find out the means of promoting his own welfare ; but 
wherever he has not systematically and fully applied these 
powers to this end, he suffers evils and deprivations. A single 
example will suffice to illustrate this proposition. 

The vibratory powers of physical objects act in a fixed and 
regular manner ; the air receives impulses from these and 
transmits them according to fixed laws ; the auditory apparatus 
in man has received a definite structure and functions, related 
to those vibrations ; and the organs of Time and Tune also 
have received a constitution related to the impressions which 
they make on that apparatus. Melody, harmony, and discord 
are the results of the action and relations of these various 
objects. The more perfect the development of these organs, 
and the greater the knowledge possessed by a composer, of the 
laws which the objects, in their modes of action, obey, the 
greater will be the range and precision of action of his organs 
of Time and Tune, and the more perfect his productions. 
Animated by the intuitive activity of these organs, and an 
empirical experience, he may go a certain length in composing 
music without scientific knowledge ; but even in this case he 
can do so only by fulfilling the laws of melody and harmony 
so far as he knows them ; and by no efforts could he succeed 
if he infringed them. 

Similar propositions may be stated of all the internal facul- 
ties. The structure, functions, sphere of action, and relations 
to other faculties and to external objects, of every internal 
mental organ, are subjected to definite laws as certainly as are 
those of hearing. For example, through the feeling of 
Benevolence we may desire to heal a patient, but we cannot 
succeed in doing so without complying with the laws of the 
animal economy related to his restoration. We have long- 
endeavoured, through humane feelings, to put an end to 
pauperism ; but as we have failed to ascertain and remove the 
causes of it, we have not succeeded. 



120 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



We Have already considered the means by which life, health, 
disease, and death, are dispensed to individuals, and -have seen 
that in the organism, its inherent qualities, and its relations and 
adaptations, the order of the Divine government in this de- 
partment is unfolded for our guidance. However ignorant an 
individual may he, however savage his dispositions and 
limited his intellectual capacities, there are bounds set to his 
physical, moral, and intellectual aberrations. However eagerly 
he may strive to attain prosperity and happiness, if he take 
the wrong course he will invariably fail, and only by pursuing 
other modes of action will he be successful. Here, then, are 
indications of a controlling power or government over him. 
Let us consider the means by which his condition is deter- 
mined while his life endures. 

We must begin with the constitutional qualities of the stock 
from which he is descended, and with the condition and con- 
duct of his parents. If the organism was feeble and unhealthy 
in the stock, or in the parents, at the period of his production, 
or if the whole, or a certain number, of the cerebral organs of 
the latter were then in a state of excitement or apathy, he 
may, throughout his life, be an invalid, or an incapable 
idiot, or a man of erratic genius, and in consequence a sufferer 
from his cradle to his grave : if these circumstances were 
reversed, his condition would be reversed. After he is born, 
also, and while yet incapable of influencing his own well- 
being, the treatment he receives may determine his health, 
morality, and intellectual capacity, and in consequence his 
happiness or misery during life.* 

I do not wish, however, to underrate the great complication 
of causes, consisting of hereditary tendencies, acquired habits, 
temporary mental and physical conditions, and meteorological 
influences, which may affect the constitution of children dur- 
ing utero-gestation, and render it difficult to unravel this intri- 
cate web of causation, and to acquire control over its separate 
threads. But this problem is presented to us for our solution, 
and the richest rewards are promised to our efforts if successful. 
Dr Spurzheim, in his work on the Elementary Principles of 
Education, observes that " He who can convince the world of 
the importance of the laws of propagation, and induce man- 
kind to conduct themselves accordingly, will do more good to 
them, and contribute more to their improvement, than insti- 
tutions and all systems of education/' (p. 74). I coincide in 
this opinion, and consider that human happiness and misery 
depend more upon the constitutions of body and brain com- 

* See Dr Combe's Physiology applied to Health and Education, 14th edition, pp. 
219, 255, 294, and also his Treatise on the Management of Infancy, 8th edition. 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 121 



nmnicated prior to birth tlian upon all other causes put toge- 
ther. Where these are radically defective and unsound, phy- 
sical pain, mental imbecility, impulsive and irresistible desires, 
torpid inactivity, or insanity with all its deep afflictions, are 
the unhappy characteristics of the individual. Where, on the 
other hand, the whole organism is sound, well-proportioned, 
and normally active, there are few conditions in life to which 
the individual may not adapt himself, or which he may not 
control so as to ward off suffering and secure a measure of 
enjoyment. The causes, however hidden and complicated, are 
certain in their operation, and we may rest assured that in 
every instance in which we shall discover the real agencies, 
mystery will disappear, and order stand forth revealed. 

After birth the happiness or misery of the individual is go- 
verned by the organism which he has inherited and the circum- 
stances in which he is placed; including in the last — country, 
climate, instruction, training, example, and all other external 
influences. A few examples may be given in illustration of 
the mode in which the Divine government appears to be ex- 
ercised on the individual after he has fairly become a denizen 
of this world. It is still conducted through the medium of 
the cerebral organs, and the relations which external objects 
bear to them. 

The human organism undergoes waste by action, and re- 
quires a regular supply -of food to maintain it in vigour. 
Organs of digestion, assimilation, and circulation are bestowed 
to enable us to supply waste, and a mental impulse is added 
to prompt us to make the efforts necessary to procure food. 
Its cerebral organ is named Alimentiveness, and its size in 
each individual determines, cceteris paribus, the strength of his 
appetite for nutritious substances. With a small development 
he will be too indifferent to the pleasures of the table, and 
suffer from weak digestion, and a low degree of physical 
vigour. If the organ be too large, he may be the slave of his 
appetite, and become a gourmand or drunkard. A medium- 
development, combined with well-proportioned lungs and 
abdominal viscera, will give him the best basis of health and 
longevity, in so far as these depend on nutrition. But the 
action of the nutritive functions is not arbitrary : it is regu- 
lated and intelligible, and on our observance of its laws ex- 
pounded in Physiology, depend our life and health. Moreover, 
to procure the means of gratifying this appetite we must pos- 
sess and apply knowledge. Food and all beverages, except 
water, require care and skill for their production ; and descrip- 
tions of the modes in which they may be most successfully 
called into existence constitute sciences : Agriculture is the 



122 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



science of the production of food ; Political Economy the 
science of its distribution ; and Chemistry the science of the 
forms and combinations in which it may be rendered most 
nutritive and savoury to the human organism. In these 
sciences, then, we find the instruments and agencies by which. 
God governs our conduct in regard to nutrition, and the con- 
ditions on which He proffers to supply our wants. We may 
pray, " Give us this day our daily bread," but unless these 
conditions are complied with, our daily bread will not be forth- 
coming ; and if we do comply with them, it will rarely fail. 

Amativeness, of which the cerebellum is the organ, may be 
next noticed. There may be other functions connected w T ith 
the cerebellum, but to my judgment the evidence is irresistible 
that the sexual propensity is manifested by the chief portion 
of it. The strength of the feeling depends, cceteris paribus., on 
the size of the organ. If too small, indifference to the most 
endearing union in nature is the consequence ; and if ex- 
cessive, it becomes a source of insatiable desire, rendering life 
restless, immoral, and miserable. Physiology unfolds the 
unspeakable devastations made in the organism by its abuses, 
and the beneficial consequences which follow from its normal 
gratification ; and in this science we find the laws to which 
its action has been subjected. These laws, by being combined 
with the moral and religious emotions, may be formed into 
moral and religious guides for its proper regulation. Yet this 
truth is ignored in our early training. 

The question, Whom is it lawful to marry? is generally 
answered from Scripture, and in some instances the reply is in 
opposition to nature. Unions of persons within certain degrees 
of consanguinity, also under and beyond certain ages, or pos- 
sessing constitutions seriously impaired by disease, or in whom 
the organs of the animal propensities greatly predominate over 
those of the moral and intellectual faculties, inevitably lead to 
suffering, and are therefore forbidden by Him who instituted 
these consequences. On the contrary, every union which 
produces healthy bodies and well-constituted active brains in 
the children, is permitted by the same authority. But under 
what system of religion or education is science brought to 
bear on the propensity, as an exposition of the laws under 
which it has been placed by the Divine Intelligence ? Yet, 
until this shall be done, this tremendous fountain of good or 
evil will be allowed to flow with only such guidance as the 
knowledge and experience of each individual may supply. 

The joys which spring from the legitimate action of this 
propensity, constitute the themes of the poet and the novelist, 
but love, and the consequences of its abuses, might also, if 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



123 



viewed under the lights of science and religion, find legitimate 
expositors in the moralist and divine. As religion and science 
stand at present, the feeling is allowed to run riot in the youth 
of the one sex, and to stimulate with a restless curiosity the 
other ; and both are left to act under its influence with a de- 
gree of reckless levity, as if there were no Divine government 
whatever in this department of nature. 

Philoprogenitiveness also is placed under Divine regula- 
tion. If the organ is small, children are regarded by their pa- 
rents as a heavy burden. A young couple were mentioned to 
me who sent their first-born and only child to a stranger to be 
reared and educated, that they might pursue their career of 
fashionable gaiety unincumbered by its claims on their affec- 
tions and attention. When -the organ is excessively large, 
children are liable to be pampered and spoiled ; and these dif- 
ferent courses of action yield results corresponding to their 
nature. In both instances the child will suffer, and sooner or 
later the abuse of the faculty will react and produce misery to 
the erring parent. The laws of Physiology should constitute 
one important element in the instruction of parents, to enable 
them to practise a system of treatment that shall confer the 
greatest benefits on their children, as organized, moral, reli- 
gious, and intellectual beings. And we must teach the child 
also what it is, where it is, what it ought to do, and 
how it should do it,* in order best to fulfil the objects of 
its existence. That such instruction and a corresponding 
training are commanded by the Divine. Euler appears to be 
indisputable, because He has so framed the organism of man, 
and its relations, that well-being and moral advancement can 
be reached only by complying with the conditions described 
by the sciences as records of His institutions and His Will. 

Combativeness and Destructiveness may be selected as our 
next examples. The same remarks as to the influence of size 
in the organ on the propensity, formerly made in regard to 
other organs and other conditions, apply also to these. It is 
the province of the intellectual, moral, and religious faculties 
to dictate the occasions, circumstances, and extent to which 
those propensities may legitimately be employed. 

Supposing a case to occur calling for their legitimate exer- 
cise, they are still under Divine government as to the means 
of their successfully accomplishing their objects. This has 
been so strongly felt in modern times, that the modes of their 
employment have been reduced to rules founded on the con- 

* This has been attempted by Mr William Ellis, in his work, entitled " What am I? 
Where am I ? What ought I to do ? " &c. London : Smith, Elder, & Co. 1852. 



124 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



stitution of physical and organized matter, and war boasts of 
being guided by science. Scientific instruction is now given 
in its various branches, from humble boxing, fencing, and 
shooting, to gigantic national contests, in which mathematical 
and algebraic calculations are employed to direct projectiles 
and guide the movements of armies. The results which civi- 
lized nations have been able to command by calling in the aid 
of science, and scientific combinations, to give efficacy through 
the medium of their fleets and armies to Combativeness and 
Destructiveness, are astounding exhibitions of human power, 
and should present us with motives and a lesson how to turn 
our other emotional faculties to good account by placing them 
under similar guidance. 

When the organ of Acquisitiveness is small, little interest is 
felt in property, and the individual thus organized often allows 
the fortune bequeathed him by his sire to melt away without 
leaving a trace behind ; or he misses wealth through sheer 
indifference, when placed in the most favourable circumstances 
for acquiring it. Great suffering often follows from such a dis- 
position, and in scrutinizing the ways of God, the key to the 
cause of the evil may probably be found, cceteris paribus, in the 
deficient size of this organ. If, again, it be excessively deve- 
loped, and not guided by high moral and intellectual powers, 
it gives an insatiable craving for property, that knows no 
bounds. The ruined speculator and gamester, the grasping- 
trader who, in hastening to be rich, overshoots his capital and 
credit, and falls a victim to his greed, will find one source of 
their calamities in the excessive development of Acquisitive- 
ness. These dispositions, too, send forth copious streams of 
misery, and in the organism we must look for the fountain. 
When normally developed and wisely directed, the faculty 
becomes the stimulus to industry, economy, and accumulation, 
and the parent of all the enjoyments which flow from wealth ho- 
nestly acquired and discreetly applied. Physical nature is con- 
stituted in direct relation to it, and to the wants of our bodies, 
which it prompts us to supply. Again we see, that the bless- 
ings which follow from such a course of conduct are dispensed 
through the medium of the organism. 

But in the pursuit of its objects Acquisitiveness is still sub- 
ject to strict natural control. Wealth cannot be produced 
without labour, aided by skill, nor can it be accumulated with- 
out economy. When produced, its distribution is not a matter 
of chance, but is governed by laws as certain in their opera- 
tion as those which regulate the evolutions of matter. _ Kob- 
bery, cheating, and gambling, may appear short roads to riches; 
but being immoral they are not only condemned by conscience, 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 125 

but by the order of nature they lead inevitably to ruin if per- 
severed in and followed till they reach their natural results. 
The science which treats of the production and distribution of 
wealth is political economy, and it stands in the same relation 
to Acquisitiveness that the science of war bears to Combative- 
ness and Destructiveness. Comparatively few persons know 
that Acquisitiveness is subjected to natural laws, fewer still 
what these are, and very few act steadily and consistently 
on them as the basis of their pursuit of gain. I have known 
some men who did so, and they were successful in attaining 
their object. One friend who has managed millions a-year 
informed me that he had early in life been imbued with the 
truth and practical character of political economy as taught by 
Mr James Mill, and had in business steadily acted on its 
rules. It did not absolve him from the consequences of floods, 
famines, shipwrecks, and the follies of men ; but it taught him 
how to calculate the frequency and force of these, and to provide 
against them ; and, taking averages of years, he found his in- 
dustry and skill as certainly and as liberally rewarded in trade 
as if he had drawn from a regulated fountain opened by the 
bounty of a superior Being. In point of fact he was drawing 
from such a fountain, viz., the storehouse of the world ; and 
his brain, knowledge, and morality were the keys by which 
access to it was given him. These rules appear to be ineffi- 
cacious in individual instances ; but in the persons who are 
unsuccessful in the pursuit of wealth, the cause will be found 
in the deficient or excessive development of the organ, the 
want of adequate moral and intellectual organs to guide it, or 
defective knowledge of the natural laws to which it has been 
subjected. 

The sentiment of Benevolence may be next considered. 
The degree in which it also is experienced depends, cceteris 
paribus, on the size of its organ. When it is small, indif- 
ference or even insensibility to the welfare of other beings 
is the result ; and when it is large, a deep interest in the hap- 
piness of every living creature is experienced, which renders 
the foot swift and the head active to confer enjoyment or to 
remove pain. These differences make the individuals in whom 
they occur widely different as moral agents. Place them at 
the head of a nation, a province, a city, a family, a school, a 
charitable institution for relief of the destitute, or of an army, 
and their measures, conduct, influence, and principles of action 
will be found, in the qualities of active goodness, generosit}^ 
and mercy, to bear a relation to the size of the organ in their 
brain. It cannot, therefore, be a matter of indifference to man- 
kind to discover the means by which good or evil to multi- 



126 REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 

tudes of sentient beings are dispensed by the order of nature j 
and in the size of this organ the means stand, to some extent, 
revealed to our senses. 

Moreover, great pleasure accompanies the activity of Bene- 
volence. All nature seems to reflect the kind affection, love, 
and good-will which reign within the mind of him in whom 
the organ is large and active ; while, on the other hand, the 
world seems cold and heartless to him in whom it is small. 
The one is instinctively disposed to believe in the Divine bene- 
volence ; the other experiences doubts and perplexities in 
arriving at the same conclusion. 

In the external world, Benevolence is subjected to restraint 
and direction by the qualities and modes of action of other 
objects and beings. The intellect must study these, and guide 
Benevolence to a course consistent with their nature and its 
own relations to them, otherwise it will not succeed in confer- 
ring enjoyment, and in securing its own gratification by pro- 
moting happiness. The records of public charities afford 
incontrovertible evidence of this fact. " About a hundred 
years ago," says Dr Combe,* " when the pauper infants of 
London were brought up in the workhouses, amidst impure 
air, crowding, and want of proper food, out of 2800 received 
into them annually, the frightful proportion of 2690 died 
within the year ! When this murderous mortality at length 
attracted the notice of Parliament, an act was passed obliging 
the parish officers to send the infants to nurse in the country. 
Under this more humane treatment the mortality speedily 
fell to 450, being a diminution of 2240 annually." Benevolence 
prompted men to make provision for rearing these children, 
but their intellect being uninstructed in some of the con- 
ditions indispensable to the maintenance of life, these con- 
ditions were neglected, and the children perished in the fright- 
ful numbers now mentioned. 

Benevolence combined with Philoprogenitiveness, and act- 
ing without intellectual knowledge, induced some individuals 
to found institutions for receiving and rearing foundling chil- 
dren. The result was the encouragement of licentiousness, 
recklessness, and indifference in the parents, accompanied by 
deprivation to the children of all the tender cares flowing from 
parental love. Experience soon shewed that there was not 
only a waste of capital and labour in such establishments, but 
that they directly fostered vice, and added to infantile death 
and misery. When intellect had penetrated to these conse- 
quences, the institutions were sivppressed, and the emotions 



* Physiology applied to Health and Education, 14th edition, p. 207. 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 127 

which had produced them were directed into "better channels. 
This, therefore, is another example of the modes in which 
the emotional faculties miss their objects and afflict their 
possessors with disappointment, when not guided by know- 
ledge of the order of nature. 

In the same category stand most of our endowed schools, 
universities, and churches. They owed their origin to Bene- 
volence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and perhaps Love of 
Approbation, acting according to the lights of the times. The 
founders of them ordered such things to be taught as then 
appeared to be most conducive to human welfare ; but, as new 
and more practical views of the order of God's providence have 
evolved themselves through a more profound perusal of the 
Book of Nature, the instruction which is now given in these 
seminaries, by imbuing young minds with the errors of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and training them to op- 
pose the diffusion of the knowledge of the nineteenth, operates 
in obstructing human well-being. These institutions were 
called into existence by the activity of the highest faculties, 
and their founders aimed at the most beneficent objects. In 
themselves, therefore, they are excellent, and it is only their 
abuses that require reformation. Under the views advocated 
in this work, every school, college, church and chapel, now 
existing in the world, is accepted as a practical manifestation 
of Benevolence, Veneration. Conscientiousness, and intellect, 
alloyed, perhaps, in some cases, by an intermingling of the 
lower feelings. But, notwithstanding all their defects, the 
preservation of these institutions is earnestly desired, because 
the day may come when each may act as a radiating centre 
of knowledge, tending to raise man to the dignity and hap- 
piness of a really moral administrator of the world. I repeat, 
however, that before they can be so applied, a generation 
must arise which shall not hesitate to employ its intellect in 
examining how far the things taught in them are in con- 
formity with the order of God's secular providence. 

In the Westminster Beview for January 1853, there is an 
interesting and instructive article on " Charity, noxious and 
beneficent f in which many of the evils that have arisen from 
the action of Benevolence, unguided by knowledge of the order 
of nature, are exposed, and remedies are suggested. " We 
find," says the reviewer, " from Mr Sampson Low's book, 
which we have placed at the head of this article, that the cha- 
ritable institutions of London are 491 in number, and that 
their annual income amounts to not less than £1,765,000, of 
which £742,000 is derived from endowments, and £1,023,000 
from voluntary contributions. Other cities and districts are 



128 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



not far behind ; but of these we can offer no summary. Cer- 
tainly, however, there are means here amply adequate to the 
relief of all misery that ought to exist and would naturally 
exist. Yet we do not find that destitution or suffering has 
been either eradicated or provided for : we do not feel clear 
that it has been met : we are by no means certain that it has 
not increased. There can be no doubt at least that it still pre- 
vails to a most alarming extent, — to an extent scarcely equal- 
led in any fully civilized country; and that it prevails most in 
our great towns, — precisely, that is, in the very quarters where 
most has been done to relieve it. What, then, is the inevi- 
table conclusion ? — a conclusion not only flowing out of these 
premises, but confirmed by the testimony of every man of 
practical experience and observation, — that such charity creates 
more distress than it relieves.*" 

How is this waste of charity to be prevented, and how are 
the objects of the benevolent donors of such large amounts of 
property to be realized ? Nothing can shew more clearly than 
the narratives of the special evils produced by particular abuses 
of charity given in the Review, that there is order in the 
government of the world, and that men must condescend to 
comply with it before they can accomplish good. According 
to the views of this treatise, the first object of these charities 
should be to convey to the young whom they are intend- 
ed to benefit, a practical knowledge of the structure and 
functions of their own bodies and minds, and the relations of 
these to God and to the world in which they are placed, and 
to train them to work out their own well-being, by complying 
with the conditions dictated by these for their guidance. If 
this instruction be omitted, it is impossible to render them 
virtuous, prosperous, and happy. The second object should 
be to feed, clothe, and lodge gratuitously those individuals 
only, who through bodily or mental infirmity are naturally 
incapable of being taught and trained to maintain them- 
selves. Thirdly, It will only be when public opinion and 
social institutions have been brought into harmony with the 
order of nature, that individual charity, even when thus en- 
lightened, will be capable of realizing its own desires. At 
present, the founders and administrators of many public 
charities, by neglecting the lessons of Political Economy and 
Physiology, waste the wealth with which they desire to bene- 
fit their destitute brethren. 

The faculty of Constructiveness may be next adverted to. 
It gives a desire and an aptitude for combining the elements 

* " Charity " (said one witness), " creates the necessity it relieves ; but it cannot re- 
lieve all the necessity it creates." 



REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL MORAL FORCES. 



129 



of nature into artificial forms for its own gratification, and 
that of the other faculties. This desire and aptitude are 
strong or weak, in proportion, cceteris paribus, to the size of the 
organ ; but it does not discover the qualities of the materials 
which it must use, or their adaptations to accomplish its ends. 
This knowledge must be acquired by the intellect, and Oon- 
structiveness must act under its guidance or fail. No extent 
of intellect without Oonstructiveness will suffice to form a 
work of art, whether a statue, ship, or steam-engine ; but 
neither will Oonstructiveness without intellect be capable of 
producing such combinations. In physics, science has con- 
quered a wide domain ; and in forming machinery, bridges, 
rail-roads, ships, houses, and innumerable other artificial com- 
pound objects, Oonstructiveness is aided by scientific know- 
ledge, and its success is proportionately great. But in the 
department of mind, science fails, and Oonstructiveness works 
empirically. The painter and sculptor have still to learn the 
influence of the brain on the forms and expressions which 
they represent. Instances in point will be found in my work 
on " Phrenology applied to Painting and Sculpture." 

The order of Providence is here again conspicuous. A mental 
force giving a desire and aptitude for realizing certain phy- 
sical combinations is conferred on man ; it is rendered strong 
or weak according to the size of its organ, and within certain 
limits he is capable of influencing its size : for example, I have 
seen the organ transmitted of large size to a child whose parent 
was actively engaged in a constructive enterprise at the time 
of the child's production. The mental force is furnished with 
a world-wide storehouse of materials, which it may employ for 
accomplishing its own gratification, and that of the other fa- 
culties ; but these materials are endowed with unchanging 
qualities and modes of action, in conformity with which they 
must be used, otherwise successful employment of them is 
impossible. To enable us to discover these qualities and 
modes of action, intellect has been bestowed on us, and we 
must use it in observing and studying them, or fail. This 
exercise of our faculties is spontaneous and pleasurable, but 
it is regulated and controlled by the Author of nature. By 
acting, therefore, morally, religiously, and intellectually in 
the spirit of His arrangements, we improve and elevate our 
own nature, increase our own happiness, and thus, in theo- 
logical language, promote the glory of God. 

All our other faculties might be treated in a similar way, 
but the foregoing instances will suffice to point out the gene- 
ral idea of the mode in which each is provided with a special 
sphere of action, but in which it is controlled by its own con 

i 



130 



EFFECTS OF DIFFERENCES IN THE 



stitution and its relations to other objects and beings, and 
thereby subjected to the Divine government. Until all our 
faculties shall have been investigated in this manner, and the 
results of their different modes of action discovered and ge- 
nerally taught, we shall not possess either a sound and prac- 
tical philosophy or religion. When this task shall have been 
accomplished, the meagreness and imperfections of our present 
systems, contrasted with the pertinacity with which we resist 
the improvement of them, will excite the wonder of posterity. 

SECTION VI. — EFFECTS OF THE PREDOMINANCE OF PARTICULAR 
GROUPS OF ORGANS IN INDIVIDUALS IN DETERMINING THEIR 
QUALITIES AS MORAL AGENTS. 

I have stated that each mental faculty is a moral force, the 
amount of which is indicated, cceteris paribus, by the size of 
its organ. In the compound power called mind, each sepa- 
rate faculty holds a place analogous to that held by a simple 
chemical element in a vegetable compound. " The ultimate 
constituents of plants," says Professor Liebig,* " are those 
which form organic matter in general, namely, carbon, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen, and oxygen. These elements are always pre- 
sent in plants, and produce by their union the various proxi- 
mate principles of which they consist. It is, therefore, neces- 
sary to be acquainted with their individual characters ; for it 
is only by a correct appreciation of these that we are enabled 
to explain the functions which they perform in the vegetable 
organisation." * * * " Such are the principal characters of 
the elements which constitute organic matter ; but it remains 
for us to consider in what form they are united in plants. 

" The substances which constitute the principal mass of 
every vegetable are compounds of carbon with oxygen and 
hydrogen, in the proper relative proportions for forming water. 
Woody fibre, starch, sugar, and gum, for example, are such 
compounds of carbon with the elements of water. In another 
class of substances, containing carbon as an element, oxygen 
and hydrogen are again present; but the proportion of oxygen 
is greater than would be required for producing water by union 
with hydrogen. The numerous organic acids met with in 
plants belong, with few exceptions, to this class. A third 
class of vegetable compounds contains carbon and hydrogen, 
but no oxygen, or less of that element than would be required 
to convert all the hydrogen into water. These may be re- 
garded as compounds of carbon with the elements of water, 
and an excess of hydrogen. Such are the volatile and fixed 



* Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, Chap. T. 



COMBINATIONS OF CEREBRAL ORGANS. 



131 



oils, wax, and the resins. Many of them have acid cha- 
racters/' 

The moral forces and their organs are never found, like 
chemical elements, existing singly, but always in combination 
with each other. The combination is not that of blending, as 
in chemistry, but of juxtaposition : but as, cceteris paribus, 
each is strong or weak in proportion to the size of its organ, 
the combinations of moral forces, in different degrees of rela- 
tive strength, produce effects analogous to those which result 
from the combination of the same chemical elements in dif- 
ferent proportions. By increasing the quantity of oxygen in 
a chemical combination, nature produces an acid substance ; 
by diminishing the oxygen, the other elements remaining the 
same, it produces sugar. In an analogous way by dimi- 
nishing the moral and increasing the animal organs, nature 
renders an individual selfish and low in his desires. By 
diminishing the intellectual organs, he is made stupid ; and 
vice versa. Each human being, therefore, is a compound 
moral force, somewhat analogous to what a piece of sugar or 
wormwood is in chemical science. The human compound will 
act differently in its own sphere, affect other human beings 
'differently, and produce different moral results, individual, 
domestic, and social, according to the predominance of certain 
of its elementary faculties over the others. We proceed, then, 
to consider the effects of the predominance of particular groups 
of organs in individuals, in determining their qualities as com- 
pound moral forces, or moral agents. 

The brain, as the seat of a compound mental power, may be 
divided into three regions. Of these the base, with the pos- 
terior and the lower lateral parts, manifests the propensities 
common to man with the lower animals ; the coronal region 
manifests the moral emotions ; and the anterior lobe the intel- 
lectual faculties. Now, as the mental faculties are truly the 
forces which produce the moral phenomena of the world, and 
as each acts with a vigour, and embraces a sphere of desire, 
emotion, or knowledge, corresponding, cceteris paribus, to its 
size, we shall probably find that the preponderance in size of 
some portions of the brain over others is the key to varieties 
of talents and dispositions, which appear so conspicuously in 
practical life, and constitute compound moral forces. In the 
common phrenological works, the effects of size in the organs 
have been stated and illustrated, but their relations to the 
moral government of the world and to religion have not been 
fully examined ; and yet this appears to me to be one of their 
most important aspects. In the following pages I shall intro- 

i2 



132 



EFFECTS OF PEEDOMINANCE OF ANIMAL ORGANS. 



duce no new illustrations, but I shall endeavour to draw from 
familiar facts some inferences that appear to me to be im- 
portant, and not hitherto to have received, even from Phreno- 
logists, that serious consideration which they deserve. 

The skull represented in Fig. 1 is that of an executed mmv 
derer of a low character. Fig. 2 represents a Swiss skull in 
which the moral and intellectual organs are largely developed, 
while the animal organs are of normal size. 

/ 

THE EFFECTS OF PREDOMINANCE IN THE ANIMAL REGION. 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 




All above the asterisks belongs to the moral, and all below and behind to 
the animal faculties. The intellectual organs lie in the forehead. 

In this world moral evil arises from abuse of some one or 
more of the faculties. Each has a legitimate sphere of action, 
within which it produces results necessary or good ; but each 
has also a wide field in which, when unguided, it may give rise 
to vice, crime, and misery. The natural guiding powers are the 
moral sentiments and intellectual faculties ; but to qualify 
them thoroughly for this office, they must be cultivated and in- 
structed. "We must learn the nature of the faculties them- 
selves, their spheres of action, their relations to each other and 
to external objects, and the laws to which themselves and all 
other objects have been subjected, and on their conformity to 
which happiness depends. When the organs of the animal 
propensities are large and active, they vehemently desire 
gratification, and find it in sensual indulgence, intemperance, 
aggressive inroads on the property, persons, feelings, and 
rights of other men ; in selfish ambition, in domineering ex- 
ercises of power ; and so forth. If the moral organs are 
deficient, men thus constituted are to a corresponding ex- 
tent wanting in the natural qualities of benevolence and 
justice, and of respect for God and their fellow-men; and, in 
consequence, their lower propensities act without the control 
of these moral powers. If the intellectual organs are deficient, 
the individual is, to a corresponding extent, wanting in the 



EFFECTS OF PREDOMINANCE OF ANIMAL ORGANS. 133 

power of comprehending the nature of his own mental im- 
pulses, and that of external objects ; and he is blind to the re- 
lations established between them, and to the inevitable results 
of their action. In consequence, he approaches to the condi- 
tion of an inferior animal, and yields to the urgent cravings of 
his propensities, regardless of consequences, and unmoved by 
the dictates of conscience, which in him scarcely exists. 

To guide the propensities to virtue, both the moral and in- 
tellectual organs must be largely developed in relation to those 
jf the propensities. If the intellectual organs be large and 
well cultivated, but the moral deficient, and those of the 
propensities large, the individual may be intellectually power- 
ful, but unprincipled and profligate. If the moral organs be 
well developed, but those of the intellect deficient, and those 
of the propensities large, he will be constantly sinning and 
repenting, blundering and trying to do better, but will rarely, 
if left to his own guidance, be able to move steadily in the 
paths of wisdom and virtue. 

It is an old saying, " Video meliora proboque, deteriora 
sequor." The state of mind which it describes arises from a 
certain degree of deficiency of the moral and intellectual 
organs in relation to those of the propensities. The first 
and second are large enough to give a perception of the abuses 
of the last, but are not sufficiently developed to arrest them 
in their career of wickedness. Deficient Causality allows the 
propensities to act without restraint when the moral organs 
are deficient ; for this faculty enables us to perceive results, 
and the inevitable link between the antecedent and the con- 
sequent. Aided by Cautiousness, it prompts us to bring the 
future vividly and strongly before us, as if it were present, and 
to feel and act as we should do if it were. When the organ 
is very deficient, there is no such power of perception of the 
future. The individual lives only in the present; results that 
are distant appear purely contingent ; and hence the future is 
either not discerned, or seen only in a feeble and flickering 
light, which has little effect on the conduct. This defect is 
very little understood by those who have never studied Phre- 
nology, yet it is the source of innumerable failures of men en- 
gaged in both public and private enterprises. 

Here, then, is a glimpse of another important fact in the 
moral government of the world. We see unfolded some im- 
portant primary causes of vice, crime, and misery; and in the 
operation of these causes we see order, fixed relations, and 
regular sequence, — all indications of divine appointment, and 
presented to us as means of instruction for the guidance of our 
conduct. Through ignorance of the functions of the brain, 



134 EFFECTS OF PREDOMINANCE OF ANIMAL ORGANS. 

this chapter of the government of the world has hitherto re- 
mained a profound mystery. The evils referred to have been 
ascribed to the fall of man and the temptations of the devil ; 
and we have been taught that God sent a series of inspired 
prophets to Judea to teach the remedy for them : But in 
these teachings there is no practical exposition of the physio- 
logical causes which are the grand roots of vice and crime, or 
of any physiological means for diminishing them, by improve- 
ment in the production of future human brains. In concomi- 
tance with this omission, we find these scourges of humanity 
everywhere abounding, and baffling the applications of clerical 
teaching to eradicate them. Not only so, but the doctrine 
that Christ endured in his own person the punishment held to 
be due to the possessors of these ill-balanced organs, for the 
abuses flowing from them, appears destitute of logical relation 
to the natural causes of their crimes. Gross and habitual evil- 
doers stand in the category of the idiotic or insane. They 
are the victims of an imperfectly-constituted, an ill-balanced, 
or an over-excited organism, placed in circumstances which 
appeal to its vicious proclivities ; and they stand in need of 
guidance or humane restraint from the better constituted mem- 
bers of society, rather than of vindictive punishment. 

During the last thirty years my attention has been directed 
to this subject, and I have observed the criminal brain in the 
prisons of most of the countries of Europe and of the United 
States of North America; and everywhere the type was the 
same. Several of the governors of the prisons had become 
aware of the fact, and had arrived at conclusions similar to 
those now stated ; and in the Appendix to my System of 
Phrenology (vol. ii., fifth edition), I have produced evidence 
from a large number of highly intelligent observers to the 
same effect. Moreover, I have, in private life, seen ill-consti- 
tuted brains work out their unhappy destiny in the present 
state of knowledge ; and the conviction has been forced on 
me, that great evils and sufferings might have been avoided 
by recognising the hand of God in the formation of that 
organ. With such experience and convictions pressing on 
my understanding and conscience, I should not be justifiable 
in withholding the foregoing statements, although they may 
offend some readers who are not convinced of their truth. 

This view of the constitution of criminals does not affect the 
distinction between right and wrong, which is founded on the 
inherent constitution of the moral and intellectual faculties. 
These, when strong, active, and instructed in the # natural 
consequences of actions, intuitively condemn licentiousness, 
intemperance, dishonesty, arrogance, and all other abuses of 



EFFECTS OF PREDOMINANCE OF ANIMAL ORGANS. 135 

the faculties ; and the fact that the perpetrators of crime have 
ill-balanced or morbid brains, affords no reason for permitting 
them to continue in a career of vice and crime unchecked. On 
the contrary, while ' a knowledge of it does not diminish the 
desire of men with well-constituted brains to prevent and 
repress crime, it greatly adds to their power of doing so suc- 
cessfully. The great difference which a knowledge of the real 
causes of the evil will make, will be found in our selection of 
the best means to remove it. In ignorance of the causes, men 
have imprisoned, scourged, hanged, and decapitated evil-doers 
in this world, and assured them, that unless they repent, and 
believe that J esus Christ died to save them from punishment 
in the world to come, they will be eternally miserable there. 
Under this mode of treatment, vice and crime have continued 
to afflict society. When the true causes of crime shall have 
been discerned by the public mind, and when the moral and 
religious sentiments shall have been trained to sanction the 
dictates of the intellect, in regard to the practical means of 
diminishing them, it is reasonable to hope that our posterity 
will act differently. Let us trust that they will also endeavour 
to supply, by external physical or moral restraint, that want of 
internal guiding power which is thus revealed to them as 
characterising these individuals ; and also that they will try to 
discover, by observation and reflection, the causes which lead 
to the production of these ill-conditioned brains, and endea- 
vour to induce posterity to avoid them. Indeed, until our 
wealth and intelligence shall be applied in conformity with 
the real order of God's government on earth, we shall make 
small progress in diminishing misery and crime ; whereas, if 
society, penetrated with this conviction, were to concentrate 
its powers in effecting plrysical, intellectual, moral, and reli- 
gious improvements in the people, as energetically as it 
has done in spreading desolation by war, the condition of the 
world might be changed to an extent at present unascer- 
tainable. 

When the government of the moral world is regarded in 
this light, the fact of a steady reappearance of nearly the same 
number of offenders before the judicial tribunals every year is 
easily accounted for. The causes which lead to the formation 
of brains disposed to crime being unknown and unattended to, 
they continue in steady operation, and regular successions of 
abnormal brains are in consequence born into the world. 
These, not being recognised as abnormal, are permitted to 
develop themselves in action according to their inherent ten- 
dencies, which are towards evil ; and hence, as the same num- 
ber of causes are regularly acting in circumstances nearly the 



136 EFFECTS WHEN ANIMAL AND INTELLECTUAL ORGANS 

same, a corresponding succession of effects or offences appears 
to be an inevitable result. 

As the object of the present work is to develop merely a 
general idea of the plan and means by which the moral govern- 
ment of the world appears to be conducted, I do not enter into 
farther details. In " The Constitution of Man," " Lectures on 
Moral Philosophy/' and " Criminal Legislation/' I have pre- 
sented some views of the mode of treatment of criminals to 
which a knowledge of their nature would, in my opinion, lead ; 
and to these I beg leave to refer. 



EFFECTS WHEN BOTH THE ANIMAL AND INTELLECTUAL ORGANS ARE 
LARGE, AND THE MORAL ORGANS ARE SMALL. 

An individual thus constituted is a compound moral power of 
a low, and often of a dangerous character. He is conscious of 
strong selfish desires, the direction of which will depend, <xeteris 
paribus, on the particular organs which are largest, in relation 
to the others in his brain. In some individuals it may be 
towards sensual pleasure ; in others to the accumulation, per 
fas aut nefas, of wealth ; in others to achieving, by any means, 
social distinction and power ; and each will believe the gene- 
rality of mankind to be constituted like himself. He will be 
an unbeliever in the disinterested love of good, and view the 
profession of it as a mere blazon,, by which to deceive. He 
will be ignorant of the influence of the moral emotions as 
social forces. His intellect will view justice as the creature of 
the law, and the law as founded only on expediency. He will 
view religion as the offspring of fear or cunning, but, never- 
theless, as a useful invention to control the ignorant. He will 
regard charity as a virtue to be practised as much as possible 
in subserviency to self-interest. Persons of this class are dis- 
believers in the actual moral government of the world, and 
consider individual and national prosperity to be attainable 
only through the instrumentality of selfishness. If their brains 
are large and their temperaments active, and if, by education 
and social position, they attain to stations of influence and 
authority, they become scourges of mankind, and constitute 
the worst advisers of kings and the most disastrous rulers of 
nations. Corruption and intimidation are the forces best 
known to them. They plan some great scheme of aggrandise- 
ment, ostensibly for the benefit of their country, or their king, 
but really of themselves ; and bribe individuals by money, 
places, and honours, to work it out by force or fraud. They 
crush opposition by the strong arm of power ; involve their 



ARE LARGE, AND MORAL ARE SMALL. 



137 



country in war, or their sovereign in contests with his sub- 
jects, and obstruct the well-being of the whole society over 
which their malign influence extends ; and all in profound ig- 
norance of the real character and inevitable results of the 
course of action they pursue. The moral as well as the selfish 
faculties existing in other men are outraged by the obstruc- 
tions to their legitimate action, which are heaped up around 
them by immoral laws and unwise public measures. 

At last these rulers are dethroned, displaced, or removed 
by death ; but nations ignorant of the nature of the moral 
fountain from which those bitter waters have flowed, are ever 
ready to open a new source of suffering in a new tyrant or 
minister as unfavourably organised as the former. They are 
ignorant of the means by which God governs the moral world, 
are blind to the palpable characters in which He has indicated, 
for our guidance, the real nature of these individuals as com- 
pound moral forces; and therefore, they apply them, or allow 
them to apply themselves, to pursuits for which they are alto- 
gether unfit. To give authority to such instruments, in expec- 
tation that they will lead a nation through virtue to pros- 
perity, is as preposterous as it would be to construct a smelt- 
ing furnace of ice. 

In a narrower field, the same results ensue from placing men 
with deficient moral organs, although gifted in intellect, at the 
head of joint-stock commercial companies. Strangers to moral 
principle, they pursue wealth through what appear to them 
to be shorter roads than honesty and industry. Some of them, 
through blindness to moral causation, involve their constitu- 
ents in ruin without intending to do so ; while others plunder 
them for their own advantage, without scruple or remorse. 
During forty years' experience and observation in active life 
I have never seen a sane individual in whom both the moral 
and intellectual organs were largely developed, devote himself 
to fraud. 

We have lately heard many demands made, that in the 
public service the right men should be put in the right places; 
but nobody is able to indicate a sure method of discovering 
the right men. Lord Palmerston truly remarked in Parlia- 
ment that the only criterion of merit is one man's opinion 
of another, which is often very fallacious ; and he was 
right. But in the quality, form, and size of the brain, nature 
has laid the foundations of different natural dispositions and 
capacities ; and when these are thoroughly understood, and 
practically attended to as fundamental elements of fitness, and 
when instruction and experience in the special duty to be 
performed, are also ascertained, it may become possible to 



138 EFFECTS WHEN ANIMAL AND INTELLECTUAL ORGANS 

solve the problem. The public are not yet aware of the 
necessity of the moral organs to the comprehension of the 
moral order of Providence. They believe in intellect as all- 
sufficient for successful public conduct: if they find a man able 
intellectually, they, full of hope and confidence, invest him 
with authority ; and although disappointed, they repeat the 
same experiment again and again, in helpless incapacity to 
discover any reliable indication of natural integrity. They 
will be forced, in time, by sheer suffering, to look on the brain 
with more respect than now. 

In barbarous states of society, that is, states in which the 
animal propensities exist in a state of habitual excitement in 
the majority of the community, in which the intellect and 
moral sentiments are less active, and still unenlightened con- 
cerning the moral relations of things, and in consequence are un- 
able to control the propensities, an individual possessing a large 
brain of the form now under consideration, and an active tem- 
perament, constitutes the conqueror, tyrant, rebel, or usurper. 
The emperor Baber seems to have been such a man. In more 
civilised ages, the intellect must play a higher, and the propen- 
sities a less conspicuous part; but in this class of men, there is 
still the absence of moral aim. In the semi-civilised state of 
society, the tyrant, despot, or conqueror, no longer orders in- 
dividuals obnoxious to his sway to be put summarily to death ; 
but he brings them to trial before judges whom he bribes or 
forces to condemn them to capital punishment. In an enemy's 
country, he does not send forth his victorious legions to plunder 
private dwellings, murder the males and ravish the females, 
and to lay the fields waste ; but he exhausts the substance of 
the conquered by enormous forced contributions, with which 
he maintains his army and enriches himself. In such practices, 
the selfish and injurious action of the propensities is clearly 
distinguishable as the moving power, the moral sentiments 
being in a state of abeyance. Men thus constituted, having a 
very feeble consciousness of the influence of the superior senti- 
ments as moral forces in social life, are blind to the execration 
and repugnance which their conduct is exciting in the best- 
constituted minds, and to the fierce animal resentment which 
it is calling forth in men of inferior natures. They do not 
perceive that they are sapping the foundations of their own 
authority, and that sooner or later reaction will ensue. They 
trust in the omnipotence of force and fraud, wielded by 
superior intellect, and they succeed, but only for a time. 

The main cause of their success, while it lasts, is the ignor- 
ance of the society which they oppress, of the nature of the 
moral forces by which the world is governed. Ignorant of the 



ARE LARGE, AND MORAL ARE SMALL. 



139 



nature of the tyrant, of their own nature, and of the laws to 
which the mental faculties, as social forces, have been sub- 
jected, average men are incapable of united action from pos- 
sessing no commonly recognised principles ; and are trampled 
on singly, and suffer. The men endowed with large moral 
and intellectual organs, who perceive and feel the real char- 
acter of the oppressing power, having no external sign by 
which to recognise each other, remain isolated and ignorant 
of their own numbers and power. They being, also, unpro- 
vided with any common theory of the human faculties, and 
with the means of discriminating the nature of individuals as 
compound moral forces, — and ignorant of the natural laws by 
which social and political well-being can be reached, — are in- 
capable of forming combinations founded on moral impressions 
and intellectual convictions. They are, therefore, powerless ; 
and, conscious of their feebleness, they quietly yield to the 
oppressing force. 

In the North American Eevolution, there were many indi- 
viduals possessing the higher class of brains, who, having been 
trained to political action under British institutions, practi- 
cally acquired considerable knowledge of the moral forces ; 
and after encountering innumerable obstructions from inferior 
minds, they succeeded in establishing a moral national power. 
I speak of the cerebral organisation of these distinguished 
men, from observations made on original portraits and busts 
of them, during my visit to the United States in 1838-39-40. 
Had they themselves been greatly deficient in the moral 
organs, or had they not been trained in an arena in which 
these had been brought into play, they might have succeeded 
in achieving the independence, but they would not have estab- 
lished the civil liberty of their country. Distrust of human 
nature, and ignorance of the influence of the moral powers, 
would have led them to invent safeguards for order, which 
would have laid the foundations of despotism or oligarchy. 



EFFECTS OF THE COMBINATION IN WHICH THE ANIMAL, MORAL, AND 
INTELLECTUAL REGIONS OF THE BRAIN ARE ALL LARGE AND NEARLY 
EQUALLY BALANCED. 

In brains thus proportioned we have the three classes of 
mental forces all energetic : strong animal propensities, crav- 
ing vehemently for indulgence ; powerful moral sentiments 
applying restraint ; and intellectual faculties capable of ap- 
prehending and acting upon the relations of things. The 
practical results will depend on two circumstances : 1st, In- 



140 



EFFECTS OF AN EQUAL DEVELOPMENT OF 



struction and training ; and, 2dly, Habitual association. As 
explained in the works on Phrenology, the affective faculties, 
whether propensities or sentiments, do not discern intellectu- 
ally ; they produce merely desires and emotions. Knowledge 
of the things related to them is acquired by the intellect, 
which studies both the emotional qualities and the things. 
If the intellect, therefore, has not been instructed and disci- 
plined to apply its knowledge of the relations of the propensi- 
ties and sentiments to outward objects, as its guide in restrain- 
ing and directing them, endless aberrations from the standard 
of duty may ensue. In such circumstances the emotional or 
affective faculties will act at one time according to their in- 
ternal impulses ; at another, according to the solicitations 
presented to them by external circumstances ; and at another, 
according to the views entertained by the intellectual facul- 
ties of what is right or wrong, expedient or inexpedient. 
In short, life will be a chaos of contradictory impulses and 
actions. 

This is a very common combination of faculties, and while 
the individual and his instructors possess little knowledge of 
the functions, spheres of action, and relative strength in him 
of the mental faculties, and of their relations to the external 
world, it appears impossible for him to comprehend either the 
principles of Clod's moral government, or his own relations to it. 
On this class, good or evil example, and favourable or un- 
favourable external circumstances, produce the greatest influ- 
ence, leading them to vice or virtue according to the groups 
of faculties which these excite. On them also the prevalent 
system of criminal legislation and prison discipline produces 
the greatest effects. The punishments inflicted by these 
act as deterring motives from crime, which their organism 
enables them to feel and appreciate ; a result which is not 
reached in cases of the lowest grade of cerebral development. 
If religiously educated, they are most deeply impressed by 
what is called evangelical Christianity. In point of fact, that 
form of religion has emanated from brains like theirs ; and 
I have observed that it is professed and upheld most earnestly 
and sincerely by persons whose brains belong to this class. 
They feel the solicitations of the propensities strongly, and 
also the dictates of the moral and religious sentiments, or con- 
science, condemning their aberrations ; they are conscious of 
inability always to guide themselves aright, and suffer from 
remorse when they err ; and amidst this internal darkness and 
confusion they find consolation in prayer, and in belief in the 
atonement by Jesus Christ for their sins. Some of these indi- 
viduals, when ignorant, and endowed with active temperaments 



THE CEREBRAL ORGANS. 



141 



which give vivid spontaneous activity to the cerebral organs, 
mistake the solicitations of their propensities for temptations 
of the Devil, and emotions naturally arising from the action 
of the moral and religious faculties for the influence of the 
Holy Spirit. The cases described on pages 40, 41, 42, are 
merely morbid states which occur in minor degrees in many 
persons not insane. 

Individuals possessing this equally-balanced combination of 
organs, when their temperament is active, and their intel- 
lectual faculties are uninstructed, constitute what, in despotic 
countries, are called the dangerous classes. They are conscious 
of mental power, and feel trammelled and degraded ; but hav- 
ing no faith in moral force, and no knowledge of the laws of 
the moral government of the world, they conspire, arm, and 
rebel. Occasionally, when the oppressor and his instruments 
are weak, they succeed in overthrowing an actual government, 
as has happened again and again in France ; but after having 
acquired political influence, they, through defect of moral 
power in themselves, and through intellectual ignorance 
of the natural conditions of social well-being, are incapable of 
wielding it beneficially. They proclaim liberty, and immedi- 
ately proceed to banish, imprison, or kill those who use that 
liberty in opposing them. If they rule over a people who also 
are unacquainted with the moral forces, and ignorant of their 
laws, and who in consequence have no faith in them, a despotic 
government is inevitable ; because, in such a state of things, 
public safety is incompatible with allowing every man to 
follow the dictates of his own desires and understanding. In 
ignorant men thus organised, the propensities are the most 
active powers, and these all aim at selfish objects. If every 
man were to pursue his own selfish gratification, irrespective 
of the rights and interests of his neighbours, collision would 
be inevitable ; and in the collision of animal forces the 
strongest would conquer. There must therefore be provided, 
from some quarter or another, a guiding and restraining power. 
In the first French Ee volution, some of the leaders appear, 
from their portraits published in Lamartine's History of the 
Girondists, to have had equally-balanced brains, while others 
belonged to the lowest class, and all were uninstructed in the 
natural conditions of social well-being. Anarchy was the 
speedy result of their sway, and it was speedily followed by 
an iron despotism. 

The ruler in whose brain the moral and intellectual organs 
are inferior in size to those of the propensities, be he in name 
a republican president, a constitutional monarch, or a despotic 
emperor, will, if left to his OAvn guidance, resort to force and 



142 



EFFECTS OF AN EQUAL DEVELOPMENT OF 



fear as His means of government. He will address himself at 
once to the animal propensities of his subjects. He will 
gratify them to gain ends, and threaten them with pains and 
penalties in case of resistance to his will. Any people, there- 
fore, which places in power over them, without restraint, brains 
of inferior combinations, or even brains of a medium order 
if ignorant of the nature of the moral forces through which 
the world is governed, will unquestionably reap tyranny as 
their reward. In rare emergencies, however, a high organisa- 
tion, full of energy and confidence in itself, may exercise 
great moral control, for a limited time, even over an ignorant 
people. 

In the French Kevolution of 1848, Lamartine, by the fer- 
vour of his benevolent emotions and poetical eloquence, saved 
France and Europe from great calamities. He induced the 
republican government to remain at peace with foreign na- 
tions, and to abrogate the punishment of death for political 
offences. The large organs of Benevolence, Veneration, and 
Ideality, and the relatively moderate size of Combativeness 
and Destructiveness, combined with a considerable degree of 
intellect and the poetical temperament, gave Lamartine the- 
consciousness of that moral power, and of its influence, on 
which he acted : and the feelings of the French people re- 
sponded to it. Apparently, the organs of Conscientiousness 
are less developed in his brain than those now mentioned ; and 
through this defect, and also because he was ignorant of the 
natural laws by which the social forces*are governed, he was in- 
capable of proceeding in the course which alone could have led 
to permanent success. By sanctioning acts of benevolence 
disowned by intellect and conscientiousness, and therefore 
opposed to the social laws of nature, he lost his influence and 
his power. He is blamed by some politicians for having dis- 
owned, on the part of France, the intention of interfering with 
the governments of foreign nations ; and it is said that it was 
this announcement that gave so many of the sovereigns of 
Europe courage to break their solemn oaths, to recal their 
concessions of freedom, to re-establish despotism, and to em- 
ploy religion to rivet its chains round the necks of their sub- 
jects. The experience of the bad effects which followed from 
an opposite course of action in the first French Bevolution is 
the best answer to this charge. In every case sovereigns and 
their subjects should be left to adjust their own differences, 
uninfluenced by foreign interference ; and then that party 
which possesses the greatest amount of wealth, intelligence, 
morality, and energy, will prevail. 

Without knowledge of the nature of man, and of the natural 



THE CEREBRAL ORGANS. 



143 



laws to which he is subjected, even those who possess the best 
form and constitution of brain are incapable of instituting and 
maintaining a moral government — i. e., a government so free 
that the subjects of it shall, by the force of their own moral 
and intellectual faculties, aided by adequate instruction and 
training, be capable of restraining their own selfish propensi- 
ties, and desire to pursue only such public objects as are com- 
patible with the welfare of all. The incapacity shews itself 
in a distrust of moral power. They are conscious of a love of 
good, but they do not know how to pursue it, so as to rely with 
confidence on its being attained. Again, through the want of 
an index to discover the existence of the predominant qualities 
of other men, they find a difficulty in selecting efficient co- 
operators in good. In proposing reforms, therefore, they are 
afraid to go the whole length in trusting to the action of moral 
power ; and in consequence, mar their best efforts by large 
infusions of precautionary elements addressed to the animal 
faculties, and calculated, as they believe, to steady political 
action and to secure order. In England they limit the fran- 
chise with a view to exclude the ignorant from political power, 
and at the same time they refuse to educate the people in 
order to remove this ignorance. In France, the leaders of the 
Eevolution in 1848 enacted universal suffrage, which is the 
highest recognition of moral power, but without enquiring 
whether the people possessed knowledge and moral and re- 
ligious training to fit them to exercise this power beneficially 
for themselves. The consequence was, that no sooner was an 
Assembly chosen under this suffrage, than certain portions of 
it commenced to act in diametrical opposition to the principle 
of the supremacy of moral right ; and the remainder, with the 
nation at their back, had neither knowledge enough of the 
nature of that power, nor confidence enough in it, to enable 
them to wield it and rely on its efficacy as a safeguard to so- 
ciety : anarchy was avoided only by usurpation ; and the usur- 
pation was sanctioned by the majority of the people whose 
liberty it annihilated ! 

Such occurrences will continue to present themselves until 
the people shall be instructed in the fact, that the brain is 
an index of the animal, moral, and intellectual forces of 
men ; and that it is through it chiefly that the moral govern- 
ment of the world is conducted. This knowledge will lead 
them to prepare themselves by self-improvement for free- 
dom, and enable them to choose as their rulers men who 
are naturally capable of guiding them through virtue to social 
well-being. These rulers also must learn that the results of 
the action of these forces in private and social life are all 



144 



HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 



regulated by divinely appointed laws, which must be studied 
and obeyed before individual and social prosperity and happi- 
ness can be securely reached. 

EFFECTS OF THE COMBINATION IN WHICH THE MORAL AND INTEL- 
LECTUAL ORGANS ARE LARGE IN PROPORTION TO THOSE OF THE 
PROPENSITIES. 

The effect of this combination, cceteris paribus, is to produce 
moderate impulses in the animal propensities, strong moral and 
religious emotions, and good intellectual powers. When aided 
by an active temperament, it produces the ardent practical 
reformer. The moral and intellectual organs are then spon- 
taneously active, and crave for gratification, which can be 
found only in doing good in the fields of private and social life. 
Individuals thus constituted are keenly alive to the causes of 
evil, and desire to remove them. They are* disposed to believe 
in a moral order of the world, and in the capability of man- 
kind to advance in the career of virtue and happiness. They 
labour to remove obstacles, and to bring into action all influ- 
ences that will hasten progress in well-being, virtue, and holi- 
ness. Men possessing the lowest, and also many having the 
middle form of brain, are disbelievers in the capacity of man- 
kind for great improvement. They expect the future to pre- 
sent merely an endless recurrence of the past ; and sneer at 
the more hopeful as enthusiasts and Utopian schemers. 

When a low temperament predominates, or a feeble consti- 
tution occurs in concomitance with the highest form of brain, 
conservative tendencies are produced. Such individuals having 
honestly and religiously imbibed the moral, religious, and po- 
litical opinions taught to them in their youth, by authorities 
whom they reverenced, have little inclination, when they are 
old, to depart from them. The inactivity of their brains ren- 
ders them incapable of forming new ideas. They love good, 
and fear to lose that which they possess. They, therefore, 
form the vis inertice of established social institutions ; they 
cling to all that has been tried and found even tolerable, and 
to much that is felt to be intolerable by others, provided that 
it does not very painfully affect themselves. Their moral 
worth, sincerity and piety, give them great weight in social 
life and also in the councils of the nation, and it forms no 
small portion of the duty and labour of more active men to 
urge them forward. When once inured to improved institu- 
tions, they adhere to their forms and substance with equal per- 
tinacity, and form buttresses of strength around them, until 
time shall have consolidated and hallowed the fabric. 



HIGHEST ORDEK OF MENTAL FOBCES. 



145 



As this class feels intuitively the paramount authority of 
the moral and religious faculties over the propensities, and 
desires to control and direct them to good, it becomes con- 
scious of its need of information how to accomplish this end. 
In countries which profess to have received a special divine 
revelation, and do not recognise God's will in the constitution 
of nature, it betakes itself to the study of the books presented 
to it as sacreclj and of the accredited commentaries on them, 
and yields itself to the guidance of the authorised expounders 
of these with a meek and holy reverence. 

Men possessing this higher combination, however, if their 
brains be large and active, have the tendency to form interpre- 
tations of their sacred books which harmonise with their own 
mental constitution ; and when bold, energetic, and enlightened, 
they demur to doctrines which violently contradict their emo- 
tions and intuitive convictions. Eammohun Eoy, a Brahmin 
of Bengal, may be cited as an example. His brain was large, 
even tried by the European average size, and the moral and 
intellectual organs predominated over those of the animal pro- 
pensities. The organs of Veneration, Hope, and Wonder, 
however, were smaller than those of Conscientiousness and 
Benevolence. He was skilled in the Bengalee, Persian, Arabic, 
Sanscrit, Greek, Hebrew, and English languages and literature. 
He died at Bristol on the 27th September 1833, and the fol- 
lowing cuts represent a cast of his head. 




Scale- of Incites. 



An account of his life, character, and writings, is given m the 
Phrenological Journal, vol. viii. p. 577, from which the folio w- 

K 



146 



HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 



ing extracts are made as an example of the manner in which 
a person with a powerful development of the moral and intel- 
lectual organs, and only a moderate degree of Veneration, is 
able to surmount the prejudices of education, caste, and coun- 
try, and pursue truth at the hazard of all that is dear to him. 
If Veneration and Wonder had predominated over Conscien- 
tiousness and Benevolence, he would have had a feeble love of 
truth and goodness, and been disposed to conform to his own 
religion, irrespective of its merits. 

" The body of Hindoo theology is comprised in the Veds, 
which are writings of very high antiquity. On account of 
their great bulk, and the obscurity of the style in which they 
are composed, Vyas, a person of great celebrity in Hindoo 
literature, was induced, about 2000 years ago, to draw up a 
compendious abstract of the whole, accompanied with explana- 
tions of the more difficult passages. This digest he called the 
Vedant, or the Eesolution of all the Veds. One portion of it 
respects the ritual, and another the principles of religion. It 
is written in the Sanscrit language. Kammohun Roy trans- 
lated it into the Bengalee and Hindoostanee languages, for 
the benefit of his countrymen ; and afterwards published an 
abridgment of it, for gratuitous and extensive distribution. Of 
this abridgment he published an English translation in 1816, 
the title of which represents the Vedant as 1 the most cele- 
brated and revered work of Brahminical theology, establishing 
the unity of the Supreme Being, and that he alone is the object 
of propitiation and worship/ Towards the close of his preface 
he thus writes — £ My constant reflections on the inconvenient, 
or rather, injurious rites introduced by the peculiar practice of 
Hindoo idolatry, which, more than any other Pagan worship, 
• destroys the texture of society — together with compassion for 
my countrymen — have compelled me to use every possible 
effort to awaken them from their dream of error ; and by 
making them acquainted with the [their] scriptures, enable 
them to contemplate, with true devotion, the unity and omni- 
presence of nature's God/ * * * 

" After the publication of the Vedant, Eammohun Roy 
printed, in Bengalee and in English, some of the principal 
chapters of the Veds. The first of the series was published in 
1816, and is entitled 1 A Translation of the Cena Upanishad, 
one of the Chapters of the Sama Veda, according to the gloss 
of the celebrated Shancaracharya ; establishing the Unity and 
sole Omnipotence of the Supreme Being, and that He alone is 
the object of worship/ This was prefixed to a reprint of the 
Abridgment of the Vedant, published in London in 1817, by 
Mr Digby. The English preface contains a letter from Ram- 



HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 



147 



mohun Eoy to this gentleman, in which he says — ' The conse- 
sequence of my long and uninterrupted researches into re- 
ligious truth, has been, that I have found the doctrines of 
Christ more conducive to moral principles, and better adapted 
for the use of rational beings, than any other which have come 
to my knowledge ; and have also found Hindoos in general 
more superstitious and miserable, both in performance of their 
religious rites, and in their domestic concerns, than the rest of 
the known nations of the earth/ He then proceeds to state 
what he had done in order to render them ' more happy and 
comfortable both here and hereafter \ and adds, 1 1, however, 
in the beginning of my pursuits, met with great opposition 
from their self-interested leaders the Brahmins, and was de- 
serted by my nearest relations ; and I consequently felt ex- 
tremely melancholy. In that critical situation, the only com- 
fort that I had, was the consoling and rational conversation 
of mv European friends, especially those of Scotland and 
England/ " 

" His head and history concur in shewing, that intellect, 
justice, and independence, had with him complete control over 
the sentiment of Veneration. As soon as he began to think, 
he intuitively perceived the absurdity of the dogmas taught 
by the Brahmin priests. He seems never to have venerated 
except in accordance with Intellect and Conscientiousness. 
The whole tendency of his mind was opposite to superstition. 
Wonder, the feeling which, when excessive, leads mankind to 
gloat upon, and swallow with peculiar avidity, the marvellous, 
the occult, the supernatural, and the astonishing, — and so tends 
to produce credulity, — had here but little sway. The myste- 
rious and unintelligible had no charms for him : he submitted 
everything to the test of consistency and reason. His great 
aim was to deliver his countrymen from the degrading idolatry 
in which they were eugulphed, and to establish among them 
the belief of a Great Supreme. He was no friend of ceremonies 
in the worship of God. With him, adoration implied only 
' the elevation of the mind to the conviction of the existence 
of the Omnipotent Deity, as testified by His wise and wonder- 
ful works, and continual contemplation of His power as so dis- 
played ; together with a constant sense of the gratitude which 
we naturally owe Him, for our existence, sensation, and com- 
fort/ He had no tendency to believe in miraculous interposi- 
tions of the Deity, where his judgment did not perceive suffi- 
cient occasion for them ; and it even appears that he did not 
credit the miraculous origin of Christianity. His views re- 
specting miracles are pretty obvious from a passage in the 
Second Appeal (p. 225). ' if all assertions/ he says, ' were to 

k2 



L48 HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 

be indiscriminately admitted as facts, merely because they are 
testified by numbers, how can we dispute the truth of those 
miracles which are said to have been performed by persons 
esteemed holy among natives of this country (India) ? The 
very same argument, pursued by the Editor (of the ' Friend of 
India'), would equally avail the Hindoos. Have they not 
accounts and records handed down to them, relating to the 
wonderful miracles stated to have been performed by their 
saints, such as Ugustyu, Yushistu, and Gotum ; and their gods 
incarnate, such as Earn, Krishnu, and Nursingh ; in presence 
of their contemporary friends and enemies, the wise and the 
ignorant, the select and the multitude ? Could not the Hin- 
doos quote, in support of tneir narrated miracles, authorities 
from the histories of their most inveterate enemies the Jeins, 
who join the Hindoos entirely in acknowledging the truth and 
credibility of their miraculous accounts ?' ' Moosulmans, on 
the other hand, can produce records written and testified by 
contemporaries of Mohummed, both friends and enemies, who 
are represented as eye-witnesses of the miracles ascribed to 
him ; such as his dividing the moon into two parts, and walk- 
ing in sunshine without casting a shadow. They assert, too, 
that several of those witnesses suffered the greatest calamities, 
and some even death, in defence of that religion ; some before 
the attempts of Mohummed at conquest, others after his com- 
mencing such attempts, and others after his death/ " * * * 

" The Rajah's published works," it is remarked, " state not 
what be believed, but what he considered the sacred books 
of different persuasions to inculcate ; for example, he main- 
tained that the most ancient Hindoo works taught pure 
theism ; and that the Christian Scriptures, both Old and New 
Testament, taught the leading doctrines of the Unitarians/' 
It is proper to mention, however, that two conflicting accounts 
were given of his latest opinions (expressed when in bad health 
at Bristol, and shortly before his death), on the Divine autho- 
rity of Christ and the reality of his miracles — the one reporting 
that he acknowledged, and the other that he denied these; 
but it does not conclusively appear which was correct. See 
Phrenological Journal, vol. viii. p. 594, and vol. ix. pp. 96, 
232. 

As already mentioned, the sterner views of God's character 
and government, which prevail in the standards of certain 
sects, emanated from the lower propensities acting in combi- 
nation with Veneration and Intellect ; while from the higher 
class of brains spring Unitarianism, Universalism, and all other 
doctrines in which the attempt is made to embody the dictates 
of Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, Comparison, 



HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 



149 



and Causality, in forms of religious belief. We have observed, 
that in Eammohun Roy's brain, the organs of Benevolence and 
Conscientiousness were larger than those of Veneration ; and 
" it was with him a favourite maxim, and one which he wished 
to be inscribed on his tomb, that ' The true way of serving 
God is to do good to man/ * 

Hitherto, however, even the highest class has laboured un- 
der the disadvantage of ignorance of the means by which God 
conducts the moral government of the world. It entertains 
an intuitive impression, rather than a clear intellectual con- 
viction, that He does govern it; but horn, is to it a mystery. 
In consequence, numerous, and often contradictory, schemes for 
improving the world, are constantly emanating from it. None 
of these meet with general approval; but some are supported 
by so large and influential a body of the rich as to obtain a trial. 
Partial good is achieved, but there are many short-comings 
from what was expected, and many disappointments. Mis- 
sionary labours, Church-extension Schemes, Bible Societies, 
Temperance Societies, Sabbath-observance Societies, Prison 
Discipline Societies, Industrial School Societies, and innumer- 
able charitable institutions for alleviating human suffering, are 
the offspring of the high moral and religious aspirations of 
this class, and of many individuals of the second class whom 
they induce by precept and example to join them. Their 
guides are their sacred books and common sense, which last 
means the dictates of their own faculties, illuminated by such 
knowledge and experience as they have reached. From this 
class also emanate those political reformers who are sincere 
lovers of their country, and not mere partisans trading in po- 
litics for the sake of power and profit. 

The grand step which this class require to take to become 
capable of realizing their own aspirations, is to open their eyes 
to the order of God's Providence as revealed in organic beings 
and inorganic objects, and their mutual relations. They must 
view the brain as a congeries of moral forces, the action of 
which constitutes individual and social mental life. They 
must learn that each of these stands in definite relations to the 
others and to external objects, and that the good or evil which 
each is capable of performing is limited by the size and con- 
dition of its own organ, and by these relations. They must 
undertake the serious study of these moral forces, and the laws 
which determine the results of their action, whether for good 
or evil; and form their own arrangements upon this knowledge. 
Then they may expect to perceive that order in the moral 
world which actually exists, but which cannot be discerned 
until its elements be comprehended. At present, not only are 



150 



HIGHEST ORDER OF MENTAL FORCES. 



schemes for human improvement devised by this class in com- 
parative ignorance of the order of the physical and moral worlds, 
but individuals are frequently selected to execute them, who, 
from some peculiarity of cerebral combination, or defective or 
false information, are incapable of doing them justice. If they 
were instructed in these points, their powers of combination 
and action for beneficent objects would be greatly increased. 
In the first place, they would know and recognise each other, 
and escape the evil of admitting to their counsels men of infe- 
rior organization, who are often fertile in schemes, confident in 
their own wisdom, and ardent in action, but, nevertheless, 
morally and intellectually incapable of discerning the line of 
conduct which the Ruler of the world has prescribed as that 
alone by which well-being can be reached. Secondly, they 
would have a stable basis in nature on which to ground their 
practical schemes. This would greatly promote agreement in 
the pursuit, and success in the results of their beneficent objects. 
Thirdly, their principles and action being supported by the 
order of nature, the class would exert a moral power of arrest- 
ing evil and achieving good, of which — while their minds con- 
tinue in a state of comparative moral and religious chaos — no 
adequate conception can be formed. 

We have hitherto considered' compound mental forces in 
classes, and adverted to general results. Let us now select in- 
dividual instances, and trace the effects of special combinations 
of these forces as they occur in individuals. 



EFFECTS OF SPECIAL COMBINATIONS OF THE MENTAL FORCES AS THEY 
OCCUR IN INDIVIDUALS. 

In Mr Samuel Bailey s "Essays on the Formation and Publi- 
cation of Opinions, and other Subjects/' the second edition of 
which was published in 1826, there is one, the Sixth, " On 
some of the Causes and Consequences of Individual Character," 
in which the author (apparently not altogether unacquainted 
with the functions of the brain) anticipates to some extent the 
views presented in this work, but without attempting to solve 
any of the problems which he states. 

He observes, that " "Whatever subsequent circumstances may 
effect, it can scarcely be questioned that all human beings come 
into the world with the germs of peculiar mental as well as phy- 
sical qualities. Attempts, indeed, have been made to resolve all 
mental varieties into the effects of dissimilar external circum- 
stances, but with too little success to require any formal refuta- 
tion. "We are, then, naturally led to inquire, how are these ori- 



SPECIAL COMBINATIONS OF MENTAL FORCES. 



151 



ginal peculiarities occasioned ? whence arise those qualities of 
mind which constitute the individuality of men? There must be 
causes why the mind as well as the body of one man differs con- 
stitutionally from that of another: what are they ? Perhaps all 
that can be said in reply to these inquiries is. that the mental, 
like the bodily constitution of every individual, depends, in 
some inexplicable way, on the conjoint qualities of his parents. 
It depends, evidently, not on the qualities of one of the parents 
only, but on those of both. A moment's reflection will teach 
us, that the individuality of any human being that ever existed 
was absolutely dependent on the union of one particular man 
with one particular woman. If either the husband or the 
wife had been different, a different being would have come 
into the world. For the production of the individual called 
Shakespeare, it was necessary that his father should marry the 
identical woman whom he did marry. Had he selected any 
other wife, the world would have had no Shakespeare. He might 
have had a son, but that son would have been an essentially 
different individual ; he would have been the same neither in 
mental nor physical qualities ; he would have been placed in a 
different position amongst mankind, and subject to the opera- 
tion of different circumstances. It seems highly probable also, 
that if a marriage had taken place between the same male and 
female, either at an earlier or a later period of their lives, the 
age at which they came together would have affected the iden- 
tity of the progeny. If they had been married, for instance, 
in the year 1810, their eldest son would not be the same being 
as if they had been married ten years sooner. It may be re- 
marked, too, that not only the time at which persons are mar- 
ried, but their mode of living, and their habits generally, as 
they have the power to affect the physical constitution of their 
progeny, may also affect the constitution of their minds, and 
occasion beings to be brought into the world absolutely dif- 
ferent from those who would have seen the light under other 
circumstances. 

" With regard to physical conformation, every one knows 
that the face and figure are frequently transmitted from parents 
to their offspring. Sometimes the father s form and lineaments 
seem to predominate, sometimes the mother's, and sometimes 
there is a variety produced unlike either of the parents ; but by 
what principles these proportions and modifications are regu- 
lated, it is impossible to ascertain. The transmission of mental 
qualities is not, perhaps, equally apparent, but it is equally ca- 
pricious. In some cases we see the characteristics of the parents 
perpetuated in their offspring, and in other cases no resem- 
blance is to be discovered." 



152 



OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 



******* 

Mr Bailey continues : " We have already intimated, that 
both the mental and physical constitution seem to depend on 
the united qualities of both the parents ; not solely, however, 
for we every day see phenomena, both of mind and body, which 
we can refer only to inexplicable accidents. Such are idiotism 
and malorganization." 

* * * * * # * 

These anomalies are apparent only, and seem such owing to 
our ignorance of the causes which produce the phenomena. 
Several of the causes have been discovered, more or less com- 
pletely, since Mr Bailey wrote.* 

" These cursory observations naturally lead us to reflect on 
the long chain of consequences of which the marriage of two 
persons may be the first link, and what an important influence 
such an union may have on human affairs. If two men and 
two women founded a colony, by removing to some uninhabited 
district or island, where they were cut off from all intercourse 
with the rest of their species, the whole train of subsequent 
events in that colony to the end of time would depend on the 
manner in which they paired. If the older man married the 
older woman, a different train of affairs, it is manifest, would 
ensue from that which would take place if the older man mar- 
ried the younger woman. In the first case the offspring of 
the marriage would be totally different individuals from those 
which would have been brought into the world in the second 
case. They would think, feel, and act in a widely different 
manner, and not a single event depending on human action 
would be precisely the same as any event in the other case. 

"As a farther illustration, it may not be devoid of amuse- 
ment to trace the consequences which would have ensued, or 
rather, which would have been prevented, had the father of 
some eminent character formed a different matrimonial con- 
nection. Suppose the father of Bonaparte had married any 
other lady than the one who was actually destined to become 
his mother. Agreeably to the tenor of the preceding observa- 
tions, it is obvious that Bonaparte himself would not have 
appeared in the world. The affairs of France would have 
fallen into different hands, and have been conducted in another 
manner. The measures of the British cabinet, — the debates 
in Parliament, — the subsidies to foreign powers, — the battles 
by sea and land, — the marches and countermarches, — the 

* Several years ago, Dr Howe and other Commissioners presented to the Legislature 
of 2vlassachusetts an instructive Report on the Causes of Idiotism, on which the Legis- 
lature acted; and in Fraser's Magazine for August and September 1856, two articles 
appeared, attempting to elucidate the physiological conditions of the human organism 
in which Dwarfs and Giants are produced. They shew talent, observation, and a just 
appreciation of the relation of physiology to the solution of such questions. 



OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 153 

wounds, deaths, and promotions, — the fears, and hopes, and 
anxieties of a thousand individuals, — would all have been dif- 
ferent. The speculations of those writers and speakers who 
employed themselves in discussing these various subjects, and 
canvassing the conduct of this celebrated man, would not have 
been called forth. The train of ideas in every mind interested 
in public affairs would not have been the same. Pitt would 
not have made the same speeches, nor Fox the same replies. 
Lord Byron's poetry would have wanted some splendid pas- 
sages. The Duke of Wellington might have still been plain 
Arthur Wellesley. Mr Warden would not have written his 
book, nor the Edinburgh critic his review of it ; nor could the 
author of this essay have availed himself of his present illus- 
tration. The imagination of the reader will easily carry him 
through all the various consequences to soldiers and sailors, 
tradesmen and artisans, printers and booksellers, downward 
through every gradation of society. In a word, when we take 
into account these various consequences, and the thousand 
ways in which the mere intelligence of Bonaparte's proceed- 
ings, and of the measures pursued to counteract them, in- 
fluenced the feelings, the speech, and the actions of mankind, 
it is scarcely too much to say, that the single circumstance of 
Bonaparte's father marrying as he did has more or less affected 
almost every individual in Europe, as well as a numerous 
multitude in the other quarters of the globe. 

" We see from the preceding glance what an important 
share an individual may have in modif}dng the course of 
events, and how his influence may extend, in some way or 
other, through the minutest ramifications of societ}^ Yet 
amidst all this influence we may also perceive the operation of 
general causes ; of those principles of the mind common to all 
individuals, and of the physical circumstances by which they 
are surrounded. The individual character itself, indeed, partly 
receives its tone and properties from general causes, and much 
of the reaction which it exerts may be, in an indirect sense, 
ascribed to them." * * * 

" The remark may be extended, with still more certainty, to 
almost all the arts and sciences. Composed as their history 
necessarily is of the achievements of individuals, their advance- 
ment is the result of general causes, and independent, in a cer- 
tain sense, on individual character. The inventions of printing 
and gunpowder, the discovery of the virtues of the loadstone, 
and even the inductive logic of Bacon, were sure to mark the 
progress of human affairs, and were not owing to the mere 
personal qualities, nor necessarily bound to the destiny, of 
those who promulgated them to the world. The discoveries of 
modern astronomy would, doubtless, have been ultimately at- 



154 



OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 



tained, although such a person as Sir Isaac Newton had never 
seen the light ; but they would not have been attained in the 
same way, nor, perhaps, at the same period. The science, it 
is probable, would have been extremely dissimilar in the de- 
tail, in the rapidity of its progress, and the order of its dis- 
coveries, while there is every reason to think it would have been 
much the same in its final result." 

These observations have been published for thirty years, and 
contain the elements of important practical truths ; yet none of 
the existing systems of Psychology enables us to explain the 
phenomena described, or to modify them to any useful pur- 
pose. And why is this the case ? Because they all depend on 
physiological causes, and these have never been investigated 
with a view to the solution of such problems. It appears to 
me that physiology, and particularly that of the brain, may in 
time enable us to render specific the ideas which are here so 
distinctly stated as general propositions, and that, by this 
means, we may become capable also of rendering them practi- 
cal. If, through physiology, we shall attain correct knowledge 
of the specific mental forces with which any individual is 
endowed, we shall be qualified to judge what duties he is ca- 
pable of discharging, and what place in society he is calculated 
to fill with the greatest success. For example : — In the Phre- 
nological Museum there is a cast of the face and forehead of 
Napoleon Bonaparte, taken after death ; and it indicates the 
greatest length in the anterior lobe of the brain which I have 
seen, with considerable height and breadth — a combination 
conferring great intellectual power. If the cast had embraced 
the whole head, knowing his temperament, and education, and 
circumstances as we do, we should have been able to discover 
the extent and relative proportions of his extraordinary powers, 
and also of those moral defects which constituted him such a 
stupendous, yet unsuccessful, actor in European history. Let 
us take another example, and see whether we can throw any 
light on the character of 

ROBERT BURNS. 



There is an authentic cast of the 
skull of Kobert Burns in the Phre- 
nological Museum. The region of 
the propensities is large, particularly 
in Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, Combativeness, and Destruc- 
tiveness. The moral region, in- 
cluding Ideality, is large, and the Intellectual region is large ; 




OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 155 

but although Causality is not deficient, the knowing organs, 
with those of Eventuality and Comparison, predominate over 
it. The temperament was bilious-nervous, and extremely 
active. Burns was educated in Calvinistic theology, in read- 
ing, writing, and accounts, and bred to the plough. He had 
no index to his own nature except his own consciousness, and 
none to that of other men except his powers of observation. 
He had no instruction in the laws of the moral government 
of the world, beyond those which he could deduce from expe- 
rience, from empirical observations of human conduct, and 
from the Bible and other books. When we know the elements 
of his mental character, and their relative strength, and his 
external circumstances, the forces which impelled him to 
action stand revealed before us. The same intensity of cere- 
bral activity which, when pervading the observing intellectual 
organs, gave rise to his exquisite descriptions of men and 
things, and which, when pervading Ideality, Benevolence, 
Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, and Con- 
scientiousness, sent forth those thrilling strains of love, tender- 
ness, and attachment, which have stirred so many readers with 
a kindred sympathy, pervaded the organs of all his animal 
propensities. From Amativeness, thus excited, when uncon- 
trolled by the moral organs, proceeded the licentiousness which 
stained his conduct ; and from Combativeness and Destructive- 
ness, similarly affected, flowed that coarseness and fierceness 
which occasionally break forth in his strains. When better 
directed, this combination gave him his satirical power. His 
comparatively moderate Causality set limits to his intellectual 
grasp, and he never executed comprehensive works like that 
of Dante or Milton. 

Men possessing only ordinary cerebral activity, experience 
great difficulty in comprehending how, with so much truth, 
beauty, true affection, and high-toned principle in his mind, 
Burns could be licentious, intemperate and coarse, as he occa- 
sionally was. But such persons do not understand the nature 
of men like him. Genius is the result of fine quality and 
intense activity in the brain. The size of this organ deter- 
mines its vigour, and the predominance of particular parts 
gives its peculiar sphere of action. In the case of Burns, large 
size in the organs of the propensities, combined with an in- 
tensely active temperament, solves the problem of the contra- 
dictions in his character. The quality which constituted his 
genius, pervaded the organs of the propensities, and they, too, 
from their great size, acted with the energy and intensity of 
genius. His inherited religious creed grated against his moral 
sentiments ; his intellect in vain laboured to reconcile them to 



156 OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 



it. This discord roused his propensities, and under the im- 
pulse of both his higher and his lower emotions he cast it 
aside, and fell back upon natural religion, the power of which 
he strongly felt. His aspirations after a better order of things 
were strong and ardent ; but his knowledge of how it could be 
attained being defective, he could contribute little practically 
towards introducing it. If there be any truth in the views 
which I am now endeavouring to unfold, and he had been 
trained to understand them, and the natural laws to which 
he was subjected, and also of the effects of the circumstances 
in which he was placed, all before his propensities had been 
kindled into a devouring flame, he might haA T e enjoyed a 
greater command over his own nature. Even in this case, 
however, he would still have had their fierce internal solici- 
tations to contend with ; but it is probable that, especially 
if aided by friendly restraint and social opinion, his genius 
might have penetrated into the order of Providence, followed 
it in action, and consecrated it in eloquence and song. In 
such circumstances, his course of action might have been 
widely different from what it actually was. Not only so, but 
had Dugald Stewart and the other benevolent and influential 
men, who for a brief space caressed Burns at the commence- 
ment of his career, comprehended his nature as we now do, 
and viewed the effect of circumstances upon it, how differently 
might not their kind feelings towards him have been directed ! 
Burns, in his Bard's Epitaph, has left behind him a remark- 
ably correct and touching appreciation of his own character, 
learned by himself, however, only after a career of blended 
sin and suffering, and of virtue and enjoyment. But Dugald 
Stewart had not even a glimpse of what genius is. He informs 
us that " what we call the power of Imagination, is not the 
gift of nature, but the result of acquired habits, aided by favour- 
able circumstances/' Common observation informs us, that 
musical talent, and a genius for poetry and painting, are gifts 
of nature, bestowed only on a few; but Mr Stewart, by dint of 
his philosophy, discovered that these powers, and also a genius 
for mathematics, " are gradually formed by particular habits 
of study or of business." How could a mind entertaining such 
views comprehend Burns ? Assuredly, knowledge of the func- 
tions of the brain will expunge such notions from philosophy, 
and enable future leaders of public opinion better to appre- 
ciate the young.* 

* Lord Cockburn's Memorials of his Own Times shew liow great an influence Dugald 
Ftewart exercised over the students who subsequently became the leading men of the 
last generation in Edinburgh ; and the omission from his lectures and publications on 
Cental Philosophy of all practical reference to the connection of the organism with the 



OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOUND MENTAL FORCES. 



157 



Brains like those of Burns, become fountains of emotions 
and ideas which they impress on other men, and as such 
they constitute a part of the machinery by means of which 
the moral government of the world is conducted. In this 
view sound knowledge of the real qualities of such men, and 
of the natural laws to which their action is subject, and of 
the consequences which they are capable of producing, becomes 
important, As they are self-acting conscious forces, it is de- 
sirable also that they should be instructed and trained to direct 
and regulate their own powers. By delivering them from 
empirical views of themselves and the world, and the dominion 
of unregulated impulses, and by enlightening their whole minds 
with a knowledge of God's laws and their consequences, their 
beneficial influence might be greatly augmented. 

Sir Walter Scott was another important mental phenome- 
non ; and yet so inveterate, in his circle, was the prejudice 
against Phrenology, that, so far as is generally known, no au- 
thentic cast of his head, skull, or brain was taken. His brain 
was examined after death, but no scientific report on it was 
published. Sir John Watson Gordon, however, told me that 
his head was three-quarters of an inch higher than any head 
he had ever painted. Is such a fact of no importance, if the 
brain be the medium through which God governs the world of 
mind ? 

[Note. — While this work is in the presSj an event has oc- 
curred near Edinburgh which has excited deep regret and sym- 
pathy in the public mind ; namely, the death of Mr Hugh 
Miller. The circumstances in which it occurred afford such 
a striking illustration of the practical bearing of the principles 
expounded in these pages, that I am induced briefly to advert 
to them. 

Mr Hugh Miller j originally an operative mason, educated 
himself, acquired an admirable command of the English lan- 
guage, distinguished himself as a scientific geologist, and be- 
came the Editor of the Witness Newspaper, published in Edin- 
burgh as the organ of the Free Church. The details which 
follow appeared in that paper of the 27th of December 1856, 
in an article avowedly from the pen of the biographer of the 
late Dr Chalmers. This writer expresses it as " his own judg- 
ment, and the judgment of the vast body of his Church, that, 
next to the writings and actings of Dr Chalmers, the leading 
articles of Mr Miller in this journal [the Witness] did more 



mental faculties, helps to account far their blindness and aversion to Gall's discovery 
of the functions of the brain. 



158 



MR HUGH MILLER. 



than any thing else to give the Free Church the place it holds 
in the affections of so many of our fellow countrymen." 

For some time Mr Miller had ceased to take any active part 
in ecclesiastical affairs. " The great work, as it now seems to 
us, which it was given him on earth to do," — was — " to illus- 
trate the perfect harmony of all that science tells us of the 
physical history and structure of our globe, with all that the 
Bible tells us of the creation and government of this earth by 
and through Jesus Christ our Lord/' 

We are told, "that he wrought at a work, entitled The Tes- 
timony of the Rocks, too eagerly. Hours after midnight the 
light was seen to glimmer through the window of that room 
which, within the same eventful week, was to witness the close 
of the volume, and the close of the writer's life. This over- 
working of the brain began to tell upon his mental health." 
He said to his medical adviser, " My brain is giving way; I 
cannot put two thoughts together to-day : I have had a dread- 
ful night of it." — " On rising, I felt as if a stiletto was suddenly, 
and as quickly as an electric shock, passed through my brain 
from front to back, and left a burning sensation on the top of 
the brain, just below the bone." 

He wrote this most touching valedictory letter to his wife, 
and then shot himself dead : — " Dearest Lydia, — My brain 
burns. I must have ivaTkecl ; and a fearful dream arises upon 
me. I cannot bear the horrible thought. God and Father of 
the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me. Dearest Lydia, 
dear children, farewell. My brain burns as the recollection 
grows. My dear, dear wife, farewell. Hugh Miller." 

Four medical men examined the body, and their report bears : 
" The cause of death we found to be a pistol-shot through the 
left side of the chest ; and this, we are satisfied, was inflicted 
by his own hand. From the diseased appearances found in 
the brain, taken in connection with the history of the case, we 
have no doubt that the act was suicidal, under the impulse of 
insanity." 

The " diseased appearances found in the brain" could not 
arise in a day — they must have been the result of long-con- 
tinued disregard of the conditions of health, established by the 
laws of Divine Wisdom. "Miller," says a writer in the Spectator 
of 3d Jan. 1857, " broke down because he was disobeying the 
laws of the creation in which he lived. He was concentrating the 
whole force of his nature in one pursuit, and suffering himself to 
be carried away by the excitement into which he had worked 
himself. He was necessarily arrested. It is imperative that the 
laws of the creation be obeyed ; it is not imperative that they 
be ' understood/ Man, indeed, may, for his own benefit, work 



MR HUGH MILLER. 



159 



out a better intellectual comprehension of the laws under 
which he lives, but he must do it consistently with obe- 
dience. He cannot snatch a further revelation, nor will Na- 
ture permit excess, even when the object of the excess 
is laudable or pious. Whether understood or not in the 
critical sense, the law goes on relentless, and all who stand 
across its path are mowed down." In this respect, Nature 
makes no distinction between those who are ignorant, even 
though not culpably so, and a man such as this — of earnest and 
undoubted piety, great intellect, and high scientific and lite- 
rary acquirements, devoted to what he and his Church consi- 
dered to be an exposition of one department of the Divine 
" government of this earth/' Of the soundness of his belief in 
the dogmas of the Calvinistic faith there cannot be a question, 
for he spent his vigour in defending them ; but, apparently, 
his religious emotions had not been trained to recognise nature 
as sacred — that very nature which he explored with a view to 
maintain the authority of the Bible: and especially he appears 
to have had no perception that the human organism is sacred; 
that in the " government of this earth," its laws are the laws 
of God ; that ignorance of them in a man of his talent, and 
with his opportunities of instruction, was culpable ; or that, 
if he knew them, disregard of them was practical irreverence 
towards their Divine Author. Is it probable that a man of 
Hugh Millers deep religious feeling, large intellect, and 
powerful will, could have persevered for years in such a 
course of action, if he had been trained to regard it as an 
open violation of the will of God, fraught with destruction 
to his own life, and with such a legacy of sorrow to his wife 
and children ? It is difficult to believe it; and I can account 
for his conduct only by the fact, that in the religious edu- 
cation of our youth nature is not represented as sacred, and 
we are not taught to obey its requirements as religious duties. 

This case affords a striking and painful illustration of the 
remarks made on page 91. 

His reverend biographer sums up the account of his life and 
death in the following words : — " His very intellect, his reason, 
— God's most precious gift, — a gift dearer than life, — perished 
in the great endeavour to harmonize the works and word of 
the Eternal. A most inscrutable event, that such an intellect 
should have been suffered to go to ivreck through too eager a pro- 
secution of such a work !" Does this mean " suffered" by God ? 
And if so, are we to regard it as a mystery, why, because God 
did not interfere specially to avert the consequences which 
He had appointed to follow from overaction of the brain? 
Hugh Miller was engaged in an attempt to reconcile the re- 



160 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



cords of nature with the Calvinistic interpretations of Scrip- 
ture. Surely, our religious men stand in need of more light 
than such writing indicates, to enable them to interpret cor- 
rectly the ways of Providence, and to lead their flocks to re- 
verence the Divine Institutions.] 



SECTION VII.— OF NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES.* 

A nation is composed of individuals, each of whom, in all 
circumstances, preserves his personality; yet they are capable 
of feeling, thinkings and acting, as an aggregate power, and 
the history of the human race is chiefly a narrative of their 
evolutions, "When we regard the different quarters of the 
globe, we are struck with the extreme dissimilarity in the 
attainments of the varieties of men who inhabit them. In the 
history of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, we shall find 
distinct and permanent features of mental character, which 
strongly indicate natural differences. The inhabitants of 
Europe, belonging to the Caucasian variety of mankind, have 
manifested, in all ages, a tendency towards moral and intel- 
lectual improvement, As far back as history reaches, we find 
society instituted, arts practised, and literature taking root, 
not only in intervals of tranquillity, but amidst the alarms of 
war. When, on the other hand, we turn our attention to Asia, 
we perceive manners and institutions which belong to a period 
too remote to be ascertained, yet far inferior to the European. 
The people of Asia early arrived at a point comparatively low 
in the scale of improvement, beyond which they have never 
passed. 

The history of Africa, so far as Africa can be said to have a 
history, presents similar phenomena. The annals of the races 
who have inhabited that continent, with few exceptions, ex- 
hibit one unbroken scene of moral and intellectual desolation. 
Dr Fergusson has recently described a superior variety of 
negroes inhabiting the interior of Africa, hitherto unknown to 
Europeans, but even they are still far below the European 
standard of civilisation. 

The aspect of America is still more deplorable than that of 
Africa. Surrounded for centuries by European knowledge, 
enterprise, and energy, and incited to improvement by the 
example of European institutions, many of the natives of that 
continent remain, at the present time, the same miserable, 

* I beg to refer the reader to the System of Phrenology, vol ii. p. 327, " On the coin- 
cidence between the natural talents and dispositions of Nations, and the development 
of their Brains," and to the works there cited. 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



161 



wandering, houseless, and lawless savages as their ancestors 
were, when Columbus first set foot upon their soil. Partial 
exceptions to this description may be found in some of the 
southern districts of North America; but the numbers who 
have adopted the modes of civilised life are so small, and the 
progress made by them is so limited, that, speaking of the 
race, we do not exaggerate in saying, that they remain to the 
present hour enveloped in all their primitive barbarity, and 
that they have profited little by the introduction into the new 
continent, of arts, sciences, and philosophy. Nay, they have 
to a great extent perished, and are now melting away under 
the influence of the vices which they have adopted, although 
they have rarely imbibed the virtues of their European in- 
vaders. 

The theory usually advanced to account for these differences 
of national character is, that they are produced by diversities 
of soil and climate. But, although these may reasonably be 
supposed to exert a certain influence, they are altogether 
inadequate to explain the whole phenomena. If we survey 
the world, we shall find nations whose soil is fertile and 
climate temperate, in a lower degree of improvement than 
others who are less favoured. In Van Dieinen's Land and 
New South Wales a few natives have existed in the most 
wretched poverty, ignorance, and degradation, in a country 
which enriches Europeans as fast as they subject it to cultiva- 
tion. In America, too, Europeans and native Indians have 
lived for centuries under the influence of the same physical 
causes ; the former have kept pace in their advances with their 
brethren in the Old Continent, while the latter, as we have 
seen, remain stationary in savage ignorance and indolence. 

These differences between nations living under similar cli- 
mates, are commonly attributed to differences in their re- 
ligious and political institutions. Presbytery and parish 
schools, for example, are supposed to have rendered the 
Scotchman habitually attentive to his own interest, but cau- 
tious, thoughtful, and honest ; while Popery and Catholic 
priests have made the Irishman free and generous, but precipi- 
tate and unreflecting withal, — ready in the gust of passion to 
sacrifice his friend, and in the glow of friendship to immolate 
himself. It is forgotten that there were ages in which Popery 
and priests had equal ascendency in both of the British isles, 
and that then the Englishman, Irishman, and Scotchman, 
were as specifically different as at present : Besides, the more 
correct, as well as the profounder view, is to regard religious 
and political institutions, when not forced upon a people by 
external conquest, as the spontaneous growth of their natural 

L 



162 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



propensities, sentiments, and intellectual faculties ; for hier- 
archies and constitutions do not spring from the ground, but 
from the minds of men. 

The phrenologist is not satisfied with these common theories 
of national character : he has observed that a particular form 
of brain is the invariable concomitant of particular dispositions 
and talents, and that this fact holds good in the case of na- 
tions as well as of individuals. If the fact be so, a knowledge 
of the size of the brain and of its different parts, in the varie- 
ties of the human race, will be the key to a correct apprecia- 
tion of the differences in their natural mental endowments, on 
which external circumstances act only as modifying influences. 
" In order," says Dr Gall, " to discover the general character, 
it is necessary to study a great number of individuals, — entire 
regiments, — the whole nation so far as possible. With such 
facilities, it will be easy for the organologist to discover in the 
structure of the head, the material cause of the peculiar cha- 
racter of the people/ 1 

Theological authors have dwelt largely on the agency of 
Divine Providence as manifested in historical events ; but one 
and all of them have written in ignorance of the influence of 
the brain in conferring particular mental dispositions and 
capacities on the individuals whose aggregate numbers consti- 
tuted nations, and consequently in ignorance of the chief instru- 
mentality through which the events contemplated were pro- 
duced. In this department, the order of Providence appears to 
them almost inexplicable. Whole races of men seem to have 
inhabited fertile regions of the earth from time immemorial, 
without developing even the rudiments of civilisation, and 
have disappeared and become extinct before other races en- 
dowed with higher energies and capacities. The size and 
form of the brain in the contrasted races, shew at least the 
instrumentality by means of which these results have been 
brought to pass. Of the origin of the lower and higher races, 
or, if both proceeded from one stock, of the causes which pro- 
duced the differences of cerebral size and form, by means of 
which their fate was accomplished, we possess no certain know- 
ledge ; but the great fact stands revealed before us, that in 
the action of Providence the condition of the brain, cceteris 
paribus, determines the condition of nations as of individuals. 
This assertion will be found to be supported by irrefragable 
evidence, whenever the crania of the native New Hollanders, 
North American Indians, and other tribes which have perished, 
or are receding before the European races, are compared with 
the crania of their invaders. 

The power which different races of men possess of working 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



163 



out political institutions, and of reaching social results, is 
bounded by the limits of their development of brain. Within 
these boundaries, important improvements, by education >nd 
training, and by political institutions, may be practicable ; but 
before proper means of advancement can be judiciously intro- 
duced, it is as necessary to discover the qualities of the men 
with whom we are dealing, as it is to know the nature of the 
soil which we mean to cultivate, or of the horses which we 
mean to train aud employ in agricultural undertakings. 

Where the development and condition of the brain is highest, 
there natural moral and intellectual capacity is greatest for re- 
ceiving training and instruction, and also for originating or 
adopting such moral and political institutions as will pro- 
duce the greatest amount of individual and social elevation 
and prosperity. The rulers of nations, and political writers 
in general, have hitherto ignored this fact. In Europe they 
have legislated and created institutions as if all the races 
were alike in their native capacities. They have recognised 
differences in degrees of cultivation, but not differences in 
capacity for receiving and applying knowledge. The indi- 
viduals who have led the French nation after each successive 
revolution, have signally disregarded equally the native ca- 
pacities and the acquired attainments of the people. The 
first revolutionists assumed the existence of morality and 
intelligence in the whole body of the people, sufficient to 
lead them to freedom, virtue, and prosperity, by the exer- 
cise of their own inclinations and judgment. Anarchy and 
material ruin were the results. Napoleon, Louis XVIII., 
Charles X., and Louis-Philippe, treated them in some degree 
as overgrown children, incapable of self-government, and 
ruled them, — Napoleon with a rod of iron, Louis XVIII. and 
Charles X. by force and superstition, and Louis-Philippe 
by corruption ; and all failed. Once more the leaders of 
the Eevolution of 1848 assumed the masses of the French 
people to be the wisest and the best of men ; and placed the 
lives, property, religion, and liberty of the entire nation at 
their disposal by universal suffrage. Ledru Eollin actually 
recommended ignorance as a qualification, and relied on native 
sense and practical experience as all-sufficient qualifications 
for legislators. How signally this mode of government failed, 
and what has followed it, need not here be told. 

England boasts of its practical character ; but here the French 
far surpass us. They try practical experiments of the most 
gigantic magnitude. But why are their schemes so diverse in 
character, and so uniform in failure ? The phenomena must 
result from causes which the leaders of the French people 



164 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



have never stopped to investigate, or been capable of com- 
prehending. ^ The fact is, that their political action has been 
purely empirical ; but empirical practice leads to truth only by 
one process,— that of exhausting errors. As it is based on no 
adequate consideration of causes, it is constantly leading to dis- 
appointment in its anticipated results. When experiments of 
this nature are tried with the lives and property of thirty-five 
millions of people, the game becomes appalling. Yet this is 
the age of empiricism, especially in moral and political move- 
ments. It is voted to be an abstraction, a dream, and a bore, 
to inquire into the natural qualities and aptitude of men to 
wield institutions, or to act out particular duties imposed on 
them by legislation. But, nevertheless, the native qualities 
exist, whether we ignore them or not ; they are the real causes 
which determine the results of the institutions and legislation , 
however firmly we may close our eyes to their influence ; and 
it is only by knowing them that our experience can become 
instructive and profitable for our future guidance.* 

Napoleon, Duclos, and other able men, have correctly discri- 

* I have presented, in the System of Phrenology, vol. ii. p. 327, 5th Edition, remarks on 
the development of the brain, and the characteristic mental qualities which occur in several 
of the best known varieties of mankind, to which I beg leave to refer. The skulls are open 
to public inspection in the Phrenological Museum, Edinburgh. The facts adduced have 
hitherto excited no general interest, and they will continue to be neglected or undervalued 
until the public mind shall awaken to a conviction that God instituted the brain and its 
functions, and that in its varieties of size and form, His wisdom is addressing us for our 
instruction regarding the order of His moral government of the world. I have assisted in 
digging up the skulls of North American Indians, buried before an Englishman had set his 
foot on the Western Continent ; I have examined the large collection of native American 
skulls, specimens of which are represented with exquisite fidelity in Dr Morton's Crania 
Americana, and I was present at many deliberations and experiments instituted by him 
and Mr Phillips how best to measux*e the relative proportions of their different regions ; 
I have repeatedly visited the three home divisions of the British Empire ; also France, 
Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia, and Italy, and observed the de- 
velopment of brain in the different nations, and compared it with all I could learn of 
their mental characteristics ; and what I have recorded is neither fancy nor fiction, but 
what appeared to me to be truth, open of course to correction, but I firmly believe not 
to be set aside by the most rigid investigations. I am led to make these observations 
by the pertinacity with which the appeals made by phrenologists to nature are disre- 
garded, even by men professedly treating scientifically of human crania, such as the late 
Dr Prichard, and more recently by Mr J. Barnard Davis and Dr John Thurnam, in the 
1st Decade of their Crania Britannica. There they give no distinct account of Dr Galls 
method of discovering the connection between particular forms and sizes of crania and 
peculiar qualities of mind ; and especially, while reporting the opinions of other investiga- 
tors, they do not mention the facts stated by phrenologists, that, ceteris paribus, the vi- 
gour of the intellectual faculties is in proportion to the size of the anterior lobe, that of 
the moral and religious sentiments to the coronal region, and that of the animal propen- 
sities to the other and lower regions of the brain. Although assuredly one object of 
Ethnology, especially that part of it which treats of the cranium, is to discover whether 
civilisation has any influence in increasing the moral and intellectual regions, and 
diminishing that of the animal propensities in the human brain, the readers of their 
works who have not studied Phrenology, are furnished with no directions how to draw 
conclusions on this point from the crania delineated in their plates. Whether the phre- 
nologists be right or wrong in maintaining that the size of those regions is an indication 
of corresponding power in these different mental qualities, is an open question ; but, in my 
opinion, the means of judging of it is a desideratum in this work, and 1 hope the omis- 
sion may yet be supplied. 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



165 



urinated and described the natural qualities of the French 
people without reference to the character of their brains. "The 
nation/' said Napoleon, "in its character and tastes is provi- 
sional and lavish; — every thing for the moment and caprice — no- 
thing for endurance ! such are the motto and manners of France. 
Every one passes his life in doing and undoing ; nothing re- 
mains." (Las Cases — Memoir es de Sainte Helene.) " The great 
defect of the French character/' says Duclos, "is to be always 
young ; by which circumstance it is often amiable, but rarely 
steady. It has almost no ripe manhood, but passes from youth 
directly to old age. Our talents of every description appear early. 
We neglect them for a long time by dissipation, and scarcely do 
we commence to turn them to account before their time is 
past." (Considerations on Manners.) But have the means en- 
joyed by such describers, of conveying their own convictions 
to men less acute in observation and less profound in mental 
analysis than themselves, been equal to those of the phreno- 
logist? It appears evident that several, and probably the 
whole, members of the late Provisional Government of France 
did not believe in the views of the French character and ca- 
pabilities given by Napoleon and Duclos. They formed a far 
higher estimate of them, and acted on their own convictions. 
Who, then, shall decide between the conflicting authorities ? 
If such men as Napoleon and Duclos perceive and proclaim 
certain great and palpable deficiencies in the French national 
character which seem to unfit them for self-government, while 
Lamartine, Arago, and Louis Blanc, also men of talent and 
honourable purpose, have been blind to the existence of these 
defects, or at least have not recognised them as presenting 
serious obstacles to their own schemes of social and political 
regeneration, is it not clear that some element of evidence on 
this fundamental point must be wanting ? 

While the knowledge of national character continues purely 
empirical, rulers will be liable to judge of it by the standard 
of their own feelings and perceptions. If they be shallow and 
ill-instructed, they will act irrespective of causes, and be blind 
to consequences. Unless such rulers stumble by accident upon 
the right path, they will advance the sciences of government 
and social economy chiefly by exhausting errors. If they lead 
a shallow and excitable people, the whole will go to destruc- 
tion together. Meantime, they will play this game with the for- 
tunes, perhaps the lives, of millions of men, and the well-being 
of unborn generations. Again, therefore, I hazard the opinion 
that the question of mental capabilities in different races is 
one of momentous practical importance, and as such merits 
the serious consideration of statesmen and legislators, 



166 NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 

m If, as phrenologists maintain, the size and proportions of the 
different regions of the brain constitute Nature's tangible and 
visible indications of mental qualities, the question of evidence, 
with a view to practice, will be considerably simplified. Thou- 
sands of individuals who might be incapable of analysing in- 
tellectual phenomena, and drawing sound inferences from 
them, might be capable of discerning a low and narrow fore- 
head, and recognising in it the natural sign of defective rea- 
soning powers ; and might see in a flat and narrow coronal re- 
gion of the brain the indication of deficiency in the powers of 
moral susceptibility and appreciation.* If they believed in 
the reality of these forms and proportions as Nature's indica- 
tions of the degrees of these mental qualities, they might be 
disposed to modify their conduct by this knowledge. 

To judge of the importance of a physical sign of mental 
qualities, we must assume it, for the moment, to be real. If, 
then, s for the sake of argument, we hold Dr Yimont's descrip- 
tions to be founded in fact, and the organisation which he de- 
lineates to be tangible and visible, the question of the degrees 
in which particular mental qualities are possessed by different 
races of men, passes from the debateable ground of psychology 
to the more definite region of organic structure. When the 
evidence by which degrees of qualities are proved becomes pal- 
pable, the doctrine itself will become practical. The science 
of chemistry created no new elements of fertility ; but, by pre- 
senting correct physical indications of the qualities of soils, 
which men of average intellect could comprehend, it rendered 
this class of persons not only equal, but superior, in discrimi- 
native power and practical judgment, to individuals of the 
highest capacities under the old empirical system. Besides, 
it unfolded more correctly and completely than mere experi- 
ence had ever done, the relations of these qualities to different 
kinds of manures, and to different modes of treatment ; and 
then, but then only, agriculture made rapid progress, and as- 
sumed the character of a scientific pursuit. 

If physical signs of degrees of mental capacities exist, will 
not the introduction of the knowledge of them into the do- 
main of moral and intellectual science, produce an effect ana- 
logous to that of the introduction of chemistry into practical 
agriculture ? It appears calculated to give to average minds 
that clear insight into natural capabilities which is at present 
possessed, and possessed imperfectly, by men of the highest 
endowments and cultivation ; and only when this shall be ac- 
complished, will this species of knowledge become practically 
useful. 



* See Dr Virnont's comparison of the French head and mental character, and also of 
those of other nations, in his Trake de Phreaologie, Paris, 1831, vol. ii. p. 470. 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



167 



Numerous temporary and adventitious circumstances have 
been mentioned by political writers as accounting for the phe- 
nomena of French history above noticed ; but unless there 
had been in the French people the mental qualities which 
Napoleon and others describe, the circumstances, in my opi- 
nion, could not have occurred : Even assuming some of them, 
in some inexplicable way, to have arisen, the general results 
could not have been such as we have seen them to be. These 
events constitute important epochs in the history of Europe, 
and affect the well-being of millions of men, and yet to the 
philosophers and statesmen of the age which beheld them, 
they were mere occurrences. The natural mental forces of the 
French people are assumed, contrary to the fact, to be the same 
with those of the German, English, and all other European 
nations. Their primitive faculties are the same, but the 
strength of each of these in proportion to that of the others 
is different in them and in the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon 
races. As the mental forces of the people constitute the fun- 
damental causes of their social action, until these be under- 
stood, science cannot explain the events, or draw from them 
practical instruction for the future, nor can religious men 
comprehend the principles of the Divine government under 
which they have occurred. 

Moreover, the aim of the French people has been to reach 
material well-being and mental freedom. But material pro- 
sperity can be attained only by acting in conformity with the 
natural laws which govern the production and distribution of 
wealth ; yet these have never been taught to the people, and 
none of their various rulers have recognised the necessity of 
studying and enforcing them as preliminary and indispensable 
conditions to the accomplishment of this object. Political 
economists, and men of practical philosophical understandings, 
have long urged the practical importance of this knowledge 
equally to legislators and people, but their counsels have not 
been followed. 

Again : mental freedom cannot exist in a community unless 
the great majority of the individuals composing it understand 
the natural moral conditions of social well-being, and are ca- 
pable of fulfilling them. These consist in controlling the ani- 
mal propensities, which are all selfish, by means of the moral 
faculties, which are social, and directing both classes of powers 
into^ legitimate courses of action by enlightened intellect. 
While the majority of a nation desire material well-being and 
mental liberty, and yet continue ignorant of the natural con- 
ditions on which these may be obtained, every revolution is a 
step in the dark ; The people may institute any form of go- 
vernment they please ; but as water cannot flow higher than 



168 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



its fountain, so will uninstracted rulers never succeed in re- 
alising the moral and material prosperity of their subjects. 

These remarks apply to all the governments of the world. 
It signifies little by what name they are called, for they will 
produce well-being only in proportion to their fulfilment of 
the natural conditions on which it depends. It is the object 
of science to unfold these for the instruction equally of rulers 
and people. Until, therefore, nations shall choose for their 
governors and legislators men possessing the most favourably- 
constituted brains and best-instructed faculties, and induce 
them to study and act in conformity to the laws of the Divine 
government, and until the people themselves shall manifest 
the same spirit in their public conduct — only partial, uncertain, 
and, to some extent, ephemeral success will attend their efforts 
to attain public prosperity. So far are even some British states- 
men from acknowledging such principles of action as wise and 
practical, that, a few years ago, Lord Stanley, now Lord Derby, 
presented, in a public document on convict-treatment, a dis- 
tinct expression of his conviction, that it is not lawful for man 
to adopt the order of nature as a guide to his conduct. Cap- 
tain Maconochie had urged on his Lordship that "we cannot 
err in taking that model (viz., ' the discipline to which we are 
all subjected by Divine providence') for our guidance in our 
attempts to elevate the characters of our guilty, but yet more 
unhappy brethren." To which his Lordship answered : " I do 
not understand that it is permitted to us thus to constitute 
ourselves imitators of the Divine government under which we 
live ; or that, in this respect, the march of infinite wisdom is 
to be followed by beings of so contracted a range of knowledge 
and foresight as we are."* Such a sentence as this appears to 
amount to a denial that the constitution and order of nature 
are presented to man as indications of the principles of the 
Divine government on earth for the guidance of his own con- 
duct. However unintentionally, it is practically an announce- 
ment of atheism, f 

Schiller, in his essay entitled " Die Gesetzgebung des Lycur- 
gus und Solon," remarks, that the State itself is not an end ; it 
is " important only as a condition under which the object of 
man's existence may be accomplished ; and this object is no 
other than the development and improvement of all the powers 
of his nature. If the constitution of a state prevents the 

'* Parliamentary Paper on " Van Diemen's Land," ordered by the House of Commons 
to be printed, 9th February 1846, p. 11. 

t The Earl of Derby's son, Lord Stanley, appears to entertain sounder views of the 
order of nature. In his recent speeches at public meetings he has evinced great intel- 
lectual powers, enlightened by knowledge of science, which give promise of a highly 
honourable and useful practical career in the service of his country. 



NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



169 



faculties of the human being from unfolding themselves, and 
if it obstructs the advance of mind, it is exceptionable and in- 
jurious, however profoundly it may have been conceived, and 
however perfectly it may have been framed in relation to other 
objects. Its durability is then an objection, and not a com- 
mendable quality ; it constitutes it an abiding evil ; for the 
longer it is capable of maintaining itself, it is only the more 
baneful." " In judging of political institutions especially, we 
may assume it as a fixed rule, that they are beneficial and 
praiseworthy, only in so far as they bring into active operation 
all the powers with which human nature is endowed, and in 
so far as they promote, or at least do not impede, mental cul- 
tivation." These remarks are worthy of the great mind from 
which they proceeded; but a method of discovering " the con- 
ditions under which the objects of mans existence may be ac- 
complished," is a desideratum which must be supplied before 
scientific progress can be made towards that end. When the 
method is discovered and applied, it will be seen that different 
nations will prefer different political institutions as the means 
of enabling each, according to its particular combination of 
cerebral organs, to work out its own well-being. 

Kulers and people are both subjected to an actual Divine 
government which controls their actions and determines the 
results, although, at present, unknown to themselves. In 
my works on " The Constitution of Man" and " Moral Philo- 
sophy," I have endeavoured to shew that this government 
is moral, and that the farther nations advance in the prac- 
tice of moral and economical science, the nearer approaches 
they will make to material and social prosperity. If these 
views shall ever be recognised as practical truths, govern- 
ment and legislation will proceed on principles widely dif- 
ferent from those which now prevail. In despotic countries 
the sovereigns preserve order by armed force, and their chief 
anxiety is to maintain their authority over their subjects, 
and to defend themselves against their neighbours, who 
generally are employed in a similar manner. Few of them 
aim at introducing the knowledge and practice of the natural 
conditions of well-being among their people, as a leading- 
object of their sway. In countries which enjoy representa- 
tive legislatures, we see each member of the legislative as- 
sembly propounding such methods of attaining general pros- 
perity, as he has been enabled, by his peculiar form of brain 
and opportunities of instruction, to comprehend. If he is de- 
ficient in the reflecting organs, causation is omitted in his 
schemes ; if he is deficient in the moral organs, his measures 
spring from and are addressed to the selfish desires. If he has 



170 NATIONS CONSIDERED AS MORAL FORCES. 



large organs of Acquisitiveness, Self-Esteem, Combativeness, 
and Destructiveness, he grasps, and brags, and bullies. If his 
moral organs are very large, and the base of his brain mode- 
rate, he is the advocate of moral force, as superior in efficacy 
to physical coercion ; but he may lack the vigorous urgency 
which large Combativeness communicates when directed by 
the higher faculties. When a scheme is brought forward for 
consideration, the speakers seldom think of inquiring how far 
it is in accordance with the constitution of human nature, and 
the laws which govern the moral and physical worlds. The 
discussion is essentially empirical. Only a very few superior 
minds penetrate to first principles, and they are generally 
treated as abstract and unpractical men. "Weeks, months, and 
years are wasted in wordy debate, and at last legislation is ac- 
complished by party combinations, and not in obedience to the 
dictates of reason and morality. 

When science shall take the place of empiricism, improve- 
ment will follow in its train. Men on whom nature has placed 
the stamp of moral and intellectual capacity will then be 
chosen as legislators, and they will inquire only which is the 
way appointed by the Author of nature to lead to prosperity ; 
and having found it, or come as near to it as possible, they 
will follow it, and trust in G-od for the results. Sovereigns 
will then cease to fear their subjects, and subjects will act in 
harmony with their rulers ; all being conscious of their prac- 
tical subjection to the sway of God, through his natural in- 
stitutions. 

Schiller's propositions before stated hold good in regard to 
religious as well as to civil laws. " Both," says he, "are excep- 
tionable when they chain upany power of the human mind, and 
enjoin it to stand still. A law, for instance, by which a nation is 
compelled to retain for ever a certain scheme of religious belief, 
merely because at a certain epoch it had appeared to be the 
truest and the best, is practically an attack against humanity 
itself, and no pretence of other advantages attending it, how- 
ever plausible, can justify it. It is unquestionably directed 
against the greatest public good, and against the highest object 
of human society," — the development of its whole faculties in 
conformity with the principles of the Divine government. 

In this chapter I have treated chiefly of the effects of Size 
in the cerebral organs on the force of mental action, because 
Size is the fundamental element of power. The influences 
which modify the effects of Size, such as age, temperament, 
health, training, hereditary descent, and others, are treated of 
in the works on Phrenology, to which I beg leave to refer. 



DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS MORAL. 



171 



CHAPTEE VII. 

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF 
NATIONS IS MORAL. 

In the Bible we are told " to do justly, to love mercy, and to 
walk humbly with our G-od;" that is, to obey His command- 
ments. We are desired also to love our neighbours as our- 
selves, and to do unto them as we should wish that they should 
do unto us. Are these precepts practical in this world, or are 
they not ? and what is implied in their being practical ? Be- 
fore they can become practical, it must be shown that they 
are in harmony with, and supported by, the order of nature ; 
that is to say, that nature is so constituted and arranged, that 
all the real interests of individuals and nations are compatible 
with each other, and that it is not necessary to rob and im- 
poverish one, whether individual or nation, in order to enrich 
another. Not only so, but that all injustice, oppression, and 
spoliation, being in opposition to the order of nature, mnst ulti- 
mately lead to evil and suffering to the perpetrator, or to those 
to whom he leaves the legacy of his spoils and his crimes. If 
such be the constitution of nature, then these precepts are prac- 
tical. If, on the other hand, the order of Providence admits 
of individuals and nations profiting by injustice and oppres- 
sion, and reaching and continuing to enjoy real prosperity and 
happiness through the systematic practice of crimes and 
violence, then are these precepts not practical in this world. 

The history of all Christian nations shews that while they 
professed to believe in the divine authority of the Scriptures, 
they were in a great measure sceptics as to the Scriptural 
precepts being supported and enforced by the order of na- 
ture. In their conduct towards each other, they have too 
often set them at defiance ; nay, each has striven to depress, 
spoil, and ruin its neighbour, as the most effectual means of 
raising itself to independence and prosperity. But not one of 
the nations has succeeded in attaining its ends by these means. 
The history of the treatment of Ireland by England affords an 
instructive lesson on this topic. 

Six centuries ago, in the reign of Henry the Second, Eng- 



172 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE 



land conquered the sister isle, and ever since has continued to 
sway her destinies. From the first day of her conquest to very 
recent times, English statesmen have acted towards Ireland on 
principles diametrically opposed to the injunctions of the New 
Testament. They insulted the feelings of the Irish, placed 
shackles on their industry, excluded them from many of the 
most valuable rights of British subjects, placed the religion of 
the majority out of the pale of the constitution, prohibited its 
professors, under pain of banishment for the first offence, and 
of death for the second, to act as schoolmasters or tutors in the 
instruction of their own people ; and when at last Ireland, in 
a moment of her strength, and of England's weakness, asserted 
her independence, and achieved a native legislature, English 
statesmen, in 1783, converted that legislature, by means 
of systematic corruption, into a new instrument of injustice 
and oppression. England pursued this course notoriously with 
the view of providing for her own safety, prosperity, and 
power. Has she succeeded ? No. A calm survey of her his- 
tory will shew that from the first day of her oppression to the 
present time, every injury inflicted on Ireland has recoiled on 
her own head ; and that Ireland continued to be the source 
of her greatest weakness, anxiety, and suffering, until she 
amended her line of conduct. She has paid eight millions 
sterling to save from starvation the victims of the system 
which she had pursued, but she does not yet discern the end 
of the retribution which she has drawn upon her head. 

During the whole period of this long crusade against the 
course of Providence and the precepts of Christianity, the 
rulers and people of England professed to believe in the Divine 
authority of the Scripture injunctions which they were tramp- 
ling under foot. They had the Bible in their hands, they had 
catechisms, a liturgy, clergymen, and bishops ; in short, all 
the means of learning their duty to God and to their fellow- 
men ; but all did not suffice to lead them into the practice of 
benevolence and justice. What did they lack ? They did not 
believe in the reality of a Divine government on earth ; and if 
they even imagined such a thing, they did not perceive that it 
was moral. Their religious emotions were entwined with 
dogmas which represented this world as the wreck of a better 
system, and the heart of man as " deceitful above all things 
and desperately wicked." They believed in a day of judg- 
ment and in future reward and punishment; but this be- 
lief did not affect their conduct so as to lead them to practise 
what they professed to believe. If they had believed in an 
actual moral government of the world, their conduct would 
have been as insane as that of men who should sow corn 



DITINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS IS MORAL. 



173 



in snow, and expect to reap a harvest from it in winter. 
Cromwell, and the religious men of his age, did not recognise 
the order of nature as supporting Christianity. On the con- 
trary, they not only believed in a special supernatural provi- 
dence, but when they were gratifying their own misguided 
passions, they complacently viewed themselves as the chosen 
instruments of God's vengeance for punishing His enemies. 
Statesmen who were not religious, either formed no deliberate 
opinion of any kind regarding the course of Providence on 
earth, or considered it as arbitrary or mysterious ; not cog- 
nisable by man, and not available as a guide to human con- 
duct. Indeed, the great majority of Christian statesmen and 
people, while they are disposed to acknowledge the existence 
of physical laws of nature, still show a practical disbelief in 
the government of the world by moral laws. 

Another example of unbelief in the action of a moral provi- 
dence in nature is afforded by the author of an able and elo- 
quent pamphlet, — " The Case of Ireland stated, by Eobert 
Holmes, Esq." After detailing the wrongs of Ireland, he 
speaks of the proposal to employ " moral force" as a means of 
her deliverance, in the following terms: — "Moral force is a 
power, by the mere operation of reason, to convince the under- 
standing and satisfy the consciences of those on whom the 
effect is to be wrought, that there is some particular moral act, 
within their ability to perform, which ought to be performed, 
and which it is their duty to perform ; and, also, by the opera- 
tion of the same divine principle only, making those free 
moral agents do the very thing required. The intended effect 
must be produced, and must be moral — the efficient cause 
must be moral, purely moral, unmixed, unadulterated by any 
mean or sordid views ; reason, heavenly reason, applied with 
eloquence divine ; no threat, no intimidation, no cold iron, no 
' vile guns/ no ' villanous saltpetre digged out of the bowels of 
the harmless earth/ nothing but the radiant illuminations of 
moral truth/' Mr Holmes regards this as a mere " evapora- 
tion plan," adopted as a safety-valve to Irish discontent. 
"It seemed," says he, "to be considered by the expe- 
diency men of the day as a first-rate contrivance but he 
regards it as pure "fudge," and seems to prefer "monster 
meetings," and displays of physical force, which may be used 
in case of need, as better calculated to accomplish " repeal of 
the Union," and the redress of Ireland's wrongs. — But Ireland 
had frequently tried to right herself by means of " cold iron," 
" vile guns," and "villanous saltpetre," and with what success 
her present condition shews.* It is obvious that Mr Holmes 

* I am no advocate of the doctrine of non-resistance. Organs of Combativeness and 



174 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE 



does not comprehend the lessons contained in his own pam- 
phlet, and is an unbeliever in the moral government of the 
world. He does not see that the advocates of justice to Ireland 
are backed not only by the " moral" but by the " physical 
force" of God's providence, in virtue of which they are able to 
demonstrate to England, that every sordid act which she has 
committed against Ireland has redounded in evil to herself, 
and that the Divine Government is so thoroughly moral, so 
skilfully combined, and so unbendingly enforced, that the wis- 
dom of all her statesmen, and the counsels of all her bishops, 
have not sufficed to turn aside the stream of suffering which 
she has drawn, and will continue to draw, upon herself, 
from every fountain of injustice which she has opened, or 
may hereafter open, in Ireland. What are the disappoint- 
ments to avarice, the humiliations of baffled bigotry, the in- 
cessant consciousness of insecurity and weakness, and the 
lavish waste of treasure, which England so long experienced 
from her injustice to Ireland, but the sanctions of Nature's 
moral laws, and the punishments which give reality and effi- 
cacy to the doctrine of " moral force ?" One gigantic wrong- 
to Ireland remains unredressed — the seizure of the property of 
her Roman Catholic Church, and the application of it to main- 
tain a Protestant ecclesiastical establishment disowned by the 
great majority of the people. If not relinquished, this enor- 
mity will lead to the downfall of the Church of England itself. 
The transfer is grossly immoral, because the Church of Eng- 
land's creed is sacred only to the individuals, whose religious 
emotions have been trained to reverence it, and the faith of 
the Eoman Catholic is equally sacred in his estimation. (See 
page 20.) The conveyance of the property from the one 
Church to the other, therefore, was an act of pure oppression, 
perpetrated by the strong against the weak ; and when the 
moral and religious emotions of the British people are emanci- 
pated from their present errors, they will discover the mag- 
nitude of this injustice, and ask if the faith of that Church 
can be pure which permitted its votaries to commit, and for so 
many centuries to maintain, such a spoliation, accompanied by 

Destructiveness exist in man, and they have legitimate spheres of activity, one of which 
appears to be to repel, by physical force, aggression which we cannot overcome by 
moral means. Armed resistance is one of the natural checks to injustice ; but it is at- 
tended by a great disadvantage. The contests of force are governed by the laws of 
force. The most numerous, best appointed, best disciplined, and most ably commanded 
army, will gain the victory, irrespective of the moral merits of the cause for which it 
fights. High moral motives animating it will, no doubt, add to its discipline, its pa- 
tience, and its devotion, and thus indirectly contribute to success ; but they will not, in 
any other respect, supply the place of the ordinary sinews of war. Nature, however, has 
other modes of arresting injustice ; and violence should never be resorted to until all 
better means have been tried without success. 



DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS IS MORAL. 175 

all the demoralising influences on both Catholics and Protest- 
ants which have flowed from its polluted fountains ? When 
this question shall be answered, a new Eeformation will not 
be far distant. 

Mr Cobden and his coadjutors carried repeal of the corn-laws 
by the use of moral force alone ; but they understood its nature 
and sanctions : that is to say, they demonstrated to the re- 
ligious public that free trade is implied in the Scripture pre- 
cepts before quoted — -to the moral public, that free trade is 
prescribed by the dictates of the sentiment of justice inherent 
in the human mind — to the merchant, manufacturer, and hus- 
bandman, not only that free trade is compatible with, and cal- 
culated to promote, their worldly interests, but that these 
cannot be permanently and systematically advanced by any 
other means. In short, they shewed that every attempt of 
every class to benefit itself by unjust monopolies and restric- 
tions had not merely failed, but actually obstructed the attain- 
ment, through other and moral means, of the very objects 
which the monopolies were introduced to promote. 

Unless all this be actually true, free trade cannot maintain 
itself even now when it is established ; and it was the moral . 
conviction that these views are true, that first inspired Mr 
Cobden with full confidence in the success of his agitation. 
Already we have evidence in the results, that the principles 
of free trade are supported by the order of nature. 

The advocates of " moral force/' therefore, who see a moral 
government of the world established and enforced by God, 
wield not only " reason, heavenly reason," as an instrument for 
attaining justice, but " threats" and " intimidation;" — not the 
threats of " cold iron" and " vile guns," which may be employed 
in support of oppression and wrong as successfully as in vindi- 
cation of right, but " threats " of evil from a Power which no 
human sagacity can baffle, and no might withstand. Yet if 
the threats be real, and if the inflictions be as certain as fate, 
what a strange condition of mind must Christian men be in, 
when they imagine moral force to be a mere " evaporation 
plan," altogether unsupported when not backed by " vile guns 
and villanous saltpetre !" Before, however, they can wield 
moral force with effect, they must be converted to a belief in 
the real, actual, and efficient government of the world by God's 
secular providence ; they must understand the scheme, and 
search for the evidence of this government, and teach it to 
their countrymen. The creeds and confessions of churches 
must be revised and new-modelled into accordance with the 
order of Nature, and the Christian precepts must be allowed the 
benefit of Nature's support to give efficacy to their injunctions, 



176 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE 



If the liberal members of the European community who 
desire to accomplish moral, religions, and political reforms, 
could be convinced of the reality of the moral government of 
the world, and take up this doctrine as the basis of their opera- 
tions, no political tyranny, and no erroneous creed, could with- 
stand their assaults. While they rely on guns and bayonets 
as their means of resisting misrule, they stand at a disadvan- 
tage, for these are equally available to defend error as to main- 
tain truth ; but when, abjuring these, they shall employ their 
higher faculties in discovering and demonstrating the com- 
bination of causes and effects, by means of which that moral 
government is actually carried into operation, they will become 
conscious of a strength before which error in every form will 
ultimately succumb. 

Mr Holmes' blindness to the moral order of creation is 
evinced by another proposal which he advocates. While he 
admits that, during all the period of England's oppression, 
Irishmen were, in general, so destitute of moral principle, 
patriotism, and mutual confidence, that England, at all times, 
found among them willing tools to perpetrate her deeds of 
. injustice, and Ireland never (except for a few months in 1782) 
found in her own population moral, intellectual, and physical 
resources sufficient to oppose or arrest them, — he looks to 
repeal of the Union, and the delivery of Irish affairs into Irish 
hands, as the only panacea for her sufferings and her wrongs. 
But if the view which I am now expounding is not a dream, 
the wrongs of Ireland will never be righted until her destinies 
are swayed by a moral and enlightened legislature: and whether 
this shall hold its sittings on the one side of St George s 
Channel or the other, will matter little to either country ; for, 
as God's providence embraces both, and has rendered bene- 
ficence and justice the only road to permanent happiness and 
prosperity for either, that legislature will first redress her 
wrongs which shall first bow before the power of God, and 
enforce His laws as superior in wisdom and efficacy to any 
which their own selfishness and prejudices can substitute in 
their place.* 

Another striking example of a people professing Christianity 
being utter unbelievers in the Divine moral government of the 
world is afforded by the legal enactment of slavery as a " do- 
mestic institution" in the Southern States of the American 
Union. Every principle of natural humanity and justice con- 
demns the gross selfishness of converting men into " chattels/' 

* These observations were written and first published in 1847. England has since 
partially changed her course of action towards Ireland, and already blessed fruits are 
visible in Ireland's peace and prosperity, and England's tranquillity. 



DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS IS MORAL. 



177 



compelling them to labour for the profit of others, and buying 
and selling them, irrespectively of all ties of kindred, place, and 
custom ; and if there be a moral Providence at all ruling in 
the world, this " Institution," being founded in iniquity, and a 
flagrant and presumptuous defiance of the Divine laws, can 
lead sooner or later to no result but terrible disaster to all who 
participate in it. Nevertheless, it is a melancholy spectacle 
to see ministers of the Christian religion, after being driven 
from every position of reason and morality in attempting to 
defend this institution, falling back on the authority of Scrip- 
ture, as the last and strongest tower of strength by which to 
maintain its odious existence. 

The advocates of the inherent moral disorder of the world, 
however, will probably point to history and to the actual con- 
dition of the human race in every country of the globe, as 
affording demonstrative evidence that this supposed moral 
government is a dream. The past and present sufferings of 
mankind cannot be disputed ; but in what age, and in what 
nation, have the religious instructors of the people been be- 
lievers in an actual practical moral government of the world 
by G-od ? Where and when have they expounded the natural 
arrangements by means of which this government is accom- 
plished ? And when and where have they directed the religious 
sentiments of the people to reverence and obey the natural 
laws as the roads that lead to virtue and prosperity ? Ever 
since the promulgation of Christianity, has any nation dis- 
covered, and practically fulfilled, the natural conditions by 
which the precepts of this religion may be supported and en- 
forced ? Not one example is known of such conduct : — need 
we, therefore, be surprised at the results being such as history 
discloses and we perceive ? The evidence of past and present 
experience certainly demonstrates that mankind, by shutting 
their eyes to the order of Providence in the world, by tramp- 
ling the dictates of morality and religion under foot, and by 
seeking prosperity and happiness under the guidance of un- 
sound religious dogmas, and of their selfish animal propensities, 
have never realized the objects of their desires ; but it does 
not prove that no scheme of moral government adapted to 
their nature exists. It shows that they have not discovered 
such a scheme ; but neither had they discovered the steam- 
engine, railroads, or the effects of chloroform, until a very 
recent date. They have been, and generally speaking continue 
to be, ignorant of their own nature ; of the adaptations of the 
external world to its constitution ; of the principles on which 
the order of nature is framed ; and of their own capabilities of 
conforming to it ; and hence many of their sufferings may be 

M 



178 



DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS MORAL. 



accounted for : but the requisite discoveries may be made, and 
indeed have been partially made, and all experience shews that 
human happiness has increased in proportion to obedience to 
the natural laws. The most intelligent, moral, and industrious 
nations are the most prosperous and happy ; the most igno- 
rant, idle, self-seeking, turbulent, and aggressive, are the most 
miserable and poor. These undeniable facts afford strong 
indications that a moral government of the world by natural 
laws exists ; and if it does so, is not the discovery of its scheme 
an important study claiming the serious attention of man ? I 
cannot too often repeat that unless the Christian morality be 
sustained and enforced by the order of nature, it is in vain to 
teach it as a rule of conduct in secular affairs. And how can 
this study be commenced and prosecuted, how can new -truths 
be turned to practical account, except by reverencing Nature 
and her adaptations as Divine institutions — teaching them to 
the young — and enforcing them by the authority of the moral 
and religious sentiments ? If man is a moral and intellectual 
being, it appears not to be inconsistent with this character to 
have constituted his mind and body and external nature in 
harmony with each other, and to have left him, in the exer- 
cise of his discretion, to work out, to a considerable extent, his 
own weal or woe. The fact that he, through ignorance and 
the misapplication of his powers, has hitherto experienced 
much misery, affords no conclusive evidence that by more 
extensive knowledge, and stricter obedience to the laws of his 
nature, he may not greatly improve his condition. 



IS THIS WOULD AN INSTITUTION ? 



179 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IS THIS WORLD, SUCH AS IT NOW EXISTS, AN INSTITUTION ? OR IS 

IT THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 

SECTION I. IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 

By an Institution, I mean an object formed apparently ac- 
cording to a plan, and designed for a purpose. By the wreck 
of a better system is meant a state of things in which order 
and design may be inferred to have once existed, but no longer 
appear. In it dislocation of parts has destroyed consistency 
of plan, and abortive results indicate defeated design. To 
which category does this world, such as it now exists, belong ? 

In attempting to answer this question we may begin with 
the Planetary System. Apparently it is an Institution ; for, 
so far as has yet been discovered, its parts are systematically 
arranged, and design is discernible in its objects. Our Earth 
is a member of this system ; and the place it holds in it is 
therefore systematic and designed. One feature of its position, 
is the inclination of its axis at an angle of 23 degrees to the 
plane of the ecliptic; and among its phenomena is its annual 
revolution round the sun. These, therefore, are portions of 
the plan of the solar system, and the effects which they pro- 
duce must be regarded as designed. 

One of these effects is the production of Summer and Win- 
ter, with arctic, temperate, and torrid zones ; and all the en- 
joyments and sufferings arising from them. Surveying these 
regions, we discover men and animals constituted with quali- 
ties adapted to each of them : the reindeer and the walrus are 
adapted to regions of ice and snow, and could not live within 
the tropics ; while the camel and the dolphin nourish in heat, 
but would perish in the arctic zone. The Hindoo and Negro 
would become extinct in Lapland, and the Laplander on the 
plains of Bengal, or in the interior of Africa. 

Pursuing our observations, we might at first imagine the 
vast expanse of ocean, in which none of the higher forms of ve- 
getable or animal life can exist, to be the result of some hide- 
ous catastrophe which has befallen our planet, and defaced its 

m 2 



180 



IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 



originally fairer features. But if we investigated the constitu- 
tion and relations of the ocean more closely, we should probably 
be led to view it in a different light. Experience, for example, 
shews that the soil requires water to render it fertile, and 
that the higher forms of animal and vegetable life are abso- 
lutely dependent on its fertility for their existence. Although 
man has discovered that water can be produced by combining 
oxygen and hydrogen gases, no process has yet been observed 
in active operation in nature for providing a constant supply of 
water by this method. Indeed, such a process could not be 
permanently continued in operation without sooner or later pro- 
ducing a deluge, unless a counteracting process for resolving 
the water back into its elements were also provided ; and such 
processes, continued on the gigantic scale necessary to irrigate 
the whole earth, would have produced continual changes in the 
proportions of the gases which constitute our atmosphere, and 
on the permanence of whose proportions animal and vegetable 
life absolutely depends. 

The actual order of Nature has been to form water sufficient 
for supplying moisture for the land, to collect it in huge basins, 
and to endow the air with sponge-like properties for absorbing 
it, carrying it to great distances, and depositing it in the form 
of dew and rain where it is wanted. In process of time, after 
having fertilized the ground, and helped to nourish animal 
and vegetable life, it finds its way back by rivers into its ori- 
ginal ocean bed, whence it is again absorbed, again travels on 
the wings of the wind, again fertilizes the plains, the valleys, 
and the mountains, and thus continues to perform an endless 
series of beneficent revolutions, without increasing or decreas- 
ing in quantity, and without deranging any other part or pro- 
cess of nature. 

Moreover, we find the ocean replete with animal life, and the 
forms in which it exists adapted not only to the watery ele- 
ment itself, but to the temperature which pervades the ocean 
in the different zones. 

Viewed in this light, then , does the ocean present itself to our 
minds as the result of a catastrophe, or as an Institution formed 
on a plan, and designed for a purpose ? — To me the latter ap- 
pears the rational inference : yet, while these arrangements are 
the sources of innumerable enjoyments, it is undeniable that 
they are also accompanied by contingent evils. 

Natural History also shews that unity of plan is discernible 
in the formation of the organisms of man and the lower ani- 
mals. Gothe, in his theories on the morphology of plants, 
Oken, a German physiologist, and Geoffroy St Hilaire, a cele- 
brated French writer on the same science, are considered to 



IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 



181 



have demonstrated this proposition. Structures so various, so 
extensive, and adapted to such different habitats as earth, ocean, 
and air, all characterized by similarity of plan, seem to pro- 
claim design, and not the wreck of a higher system. 

Geological investigations, again, have demonstrated that the 
order of Nature instead of retrograding has been** advancing. 
Lower conditions of physical, vegetable, and animal exist- 
ence, have passed away and been succeeded by higher states ; 
and there is no reason to suppose that the limit of improve- 
ment has been attained. But in all the changes, we perceive 
the organic adaptation to the inorganic conditions of the earth. 
At present, we are capable of penetrating fully into neither 
the plan nor the design of the constitution of the earth and its 
occupants, but wherever our knowledge of nature is exact and 
tolerably complete, we are led to the conclusion that, with all 
its unexplained anomalies and apparent imperfections, it is 
not only an Institution, but an advancing Institution, rather 
than the wreck of a higher order of things. The work of Paley 
on Natural Theology, and the Bridgewater Treatises,* afford 
strong evidence in support of this proposition ; and in " The 
Constitution of Man/' I have endeavoured to shew that the 
chief object of all the well-known arrangements of Nature is 
beneficent. 

Extending our inquiries to the human constitution and 
its adaptations, we discover that man is composed of chemical 
elements, and is brought into existence as a sentient, intelli- 
gent, moral, and religious being, according to fixed laws, and 
endowed with organs and faculties adapted in the most strik- 
ing manner to the condition in which the earth now exists ; 

* The authors of the Bridgewater Treatises do not attempt to render the admirable 
and beneficent structures, agencies, and adaptations of Nature which they so eloquently 
unfold, religious truths, by entwining them with the religious emotions ; nor do they draw 
from them, for the guidance of human conduct, rules invested with the authority of Di- 
vine wisdom and power. These omissions apparently had their source in the fact that 
the writers were restrained by the existing dogmas of religious faith from proceeding to 
such applications of the truths which they unfolded. The consequence, however, has 
been, that their works remain barren of practical fruits. They are read and admired, 
and help to elevate and liberalize the minds of their readers in a general way, but here 
their influence ends. Nobody acts on them. The authors of " Typical Forms and Spe- 
cial Ends in Creation," appear also to have laboured under a similar restraint ; for while 
they have brought into a focus a mass of interesting elucidations of the prevalence of 
design and adaptation in Nature, they do not venture on the application of the grand 
truths which they exhibit to practical religion. Bishop Butler, too, appears, in his Ser- 
mons on '* Human Nature," and " Upon the Love of our Neighbour," to have made such 
a near approach 'to the practical doctrine of the present work, that I am led to think 
that the dogmas of his creed also restrained the full and free exercise of his profound 
upright, and comprehensive understanding, in pursuing the subject to its legitimate 
conclusions. 

If some future patron of human progress should offer a premium for a work carrying 
forward, by correcting and enlarging, the views which I am now feebly presenting in 
general outline, truths might be elicited which would prove eminently practical, and, by 
being entwined with the religious emotions, become highly influential in action. 



182 



IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 



his muscles to the force of gravitation, which is a planetary 
force ; his eye and faculty of Colouring to the sun's rays ; his 
lungs to the air, his stomach to the vegetable and animal pro- 
ductions of the soil and sea ; his skin and sensitive nerves to 
the actual temperature of the earth and air, and his mental 
faculties to the whole objects of the arena in which he is des- 
tined to live and act. The preceding pages are devoted to 
expositions and proofs of these propositions, and it is unneces- 
sary to recapitulate them in detail. The facts appear to indi- 
cate that man, such as he now exists, is a part of an Institu- 
tion. One remark, however, remains, to be added. 

In " The Constitution of Man," I have attempted to shew, 
not only that the world has been instituted for benevolent pur- 
poses, but that even the contingent evil of pain has beneficent 
objects. When that work appeared, it was objected that pain is 
obviously the punishment of sin, inflicted in consequence of 
Adam's first transgression ; and the statement of the contrary 
was represented as an infidel denial of the authority of Scrip- 
ture, in which the pains of child-birth are inflicted in express 
terms on Eve and all her sex, as a retribution for her share in 
that unfortunate transaction. The argument, that as those 
pains are not suffered by all women, and are not equally severe 
in all whom they visit,* they could not justly be regarded as 
an essential portion of the order of nature, was urged in vain. 
In the course of time, however, sulphuric ether and chloroform, 
and more recently a new substance named amelyne, have been 
discovered, all of which have the power of suspending sensi- 
bility to pain, while they leave the muscular s}^stem unaffected. 
The consequence is, that child-birth and severe surgical opera- 
tions are now accomplished without suffering. 

The inference to be drawn from such facts is well stated by 
Dr Symonds, Physician to the Bristol Infirmary, in a letter 
published by him in the British and Foreign Medical Beview 
for 1846. " Art, after all," says he, " is but Nature in a new 
form — a fresh arrangement of the forces of Nature, compelling 
them to ivork under new conditions." He adds, " I am not fond 
of arguments from final causes ; but can it be doubted that the 
various medicines toe possess, were, as such, a part of the plan 
of the universe designed to have a relation to morbid states of 
living organisms, as much as esculent matters to healthy con- 
ditions ?" On page 28, I have adverted to the fact that the 
organism of man and animals possesses, up to a certain point, 
the power of repairing injuries which it may sustain ; and that 
this power remains latent until called into action by the wants 

* See evidence of this fact in No. III. of the Appendix to " The Constitution of Man,"' 
post 8vo edition, 1847. 



IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 



183 



of the lacerated parts. If esculent matters have been adapted by 
God to the healthy condition of the human organism, does not 
this indicate that our digestive and assimilating organs, and 
their relations to those substances, are Institutions ? But if 
that organism itself possesses a power of repairing injuries 
which are only prospective and contingent, and if there are 
also substances in nature adapted to remove its morbid states 
when they occur, is it not a just inference that liability to 
disease also is a part of this Institution, but that pain and 
disease are not direct — essential — designed — and therefore ine- 
vitable elements of it ? 

The adaptations of one portion of physical nature to another, 
by which man is benefited, also proclaim that this world, such 
as it now exists, is an Institution. Coal and mineral beds are 
familiar examples ; aud Dr Lyon Playfair presents another 
which is not so generally known. " In 1842/' says he, " I had 
the pleasure of travelling with the Dean of Westminster and 
Liebig over different parts of England. Among other places 
we visited a limestone in the neighbourhood of Clifton, where 
in former times saurian reptiles had been the pirates of the sea. 
There, along with the relics of the fishes on which they had 
preyed, were their own animal remains. Coprolites existed in 
great abundance, and proved the extraordinary number of the 
reptiles which must have existed. The interesting question 
arose as to whether these excretions of extinct animals contained 
the mineral ingredients of so much value in animal manure. 
The question was in fact not yet solved by the chemist, and 
we took specimens, in order to confirm by chemical analysis 
the views of the geologist. After Liebig had completed their 
analysis, he saw that they might be made applicable to practi- 
cal purposes. ' What a curious and interesting subject for 
contemplation ! In the remains of an extinct animal world 
England is to find the means of increasing her wealth in agri- 
cultural produce, as she has already found the great support of 
her manufacturing industry in fossil fuel — the preserved mat- 
ter of primeval forests — the remains of a vegetable world ! 
May this expectation be realised! and may her excellent 
population be thus redeemed from poverty and misery !' I 
well recollect the storm of ridicule raised by these expressions 
of the German philosopher, and yet truth has triumphed over 
scepticism, and thousands of tons of similar animal remains 
are now used in promoting the fertility of our fields. The 
geological observer, in his search after evidences of ancient 
life, aided by the chemist, excavated extinct remains which 
produce new life to future generations." — Eecords of the School 
of Mines, 1852. 



184 



IS THIS WORLD AN INSTITUTION ? 



In regarding this world as an Institution I do not pretend to 
solve all the difficulties which this view of it presents. Man, 
apparently, is only in the beginning of his career of study and 
discovery, and also probably far from the highest attainable im- 
provement in his own physical and mental endowments. All 
that I aim at, therefore, is to direct, if possible, future inquiries 
into the right road of investigation, and to animate them with 
faith in a rich harvest of beneficial results, as the reward of 
studying Nature in the spirit of religion and truth. Some of 
the objections to the views now maintained are well stated and 
candidly discussed in a letter addressed to me by an esteemed 
scientific friend, and published in 1847 in the Appendix, No. 
IX., to the post 8vo edition of " The Constitution of Man." 
The following extract from it is instructive : — 

" Our concern is with the one species man. With other 
organic beings, the course of nature has been to sacrifice the 
inferior for the benefit of the superior. Species have been (per- 
haps still are) sacrificed for other species more favoured. In- 
dividuals have been and are sacrificed in countless numbers for 
other individuals more favoured, that is, superior in some mode. 
The history of mankind shews, that individuals of the human 
species have constantly been sacrificed or injured, for the ad- 
vantage of other individuals. Notwithstanding many apparent 
anomalies, nature has kept on the same course here, namely, 
that of sacrificing the inferior to the superior, the weak to the 
strong. The red and black races are sacrificed to the white ; 
the feebler or inferior whites to the stronger or superior. And 
it is an undeniable fact, that individuals are now daily suffer- 
ing, even unto death, while other individuals are benefited by 
the warnings and instruction thus furnished to them. 

" There is, then, nothing at variance with the usual course 
of natural events, in a belief that the sufferings of some are ac- 
tually intended to instruct, even though the instruction (that 
is, the benefit) falls chiefly or solely to the lot of other indivi- 
duals of the human species. 

" But is this always to continue until the human species, in 
its turn, gives place to some other species ? The one peculiarity 
which distinguishes man, as a species, from all other species, 
viz., the mental power of funding his experience into capital, 
available to all succeeding individuals, arrests the analogy here. 
As the experiential capital accumulates, there may be (there 
must be ? ) less and less necessity of sacrificing individuals for 
the benefit (instruction) of other individuals ; while the inte- 
rest which any shareholder may draw from the joint-stock 
capi tal of experience will enable him so much the more easily 
and certainly to preserve himself from being made into a sacri- 



IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 185 

fice. Moreover, part of the experiential capital will probably 
be that physiological knowledge which may enable parents to 
improve the organic development of their offspring, so as to 
keep raising individuals up towards the highest possible type, 
and thus decreasing the inferior specimens of the race, until no 
very bad ones remain. 

" Under this view, there is no need to distort or explain away 
the facts of nature. They fully harmonize with your creed 
about the mode of instructing the human race by individual 
suffering and destruction. But the one difficulty will still re- 
main, namely, that as man is the only species instructed there- 
by, ■ What is the ultimate purpose of all the sufferings and 
destruction of all other organized individuals, for time unreck- 
onable ?' The analogy is too close to warrant the assumption 
of two different purposes, one applicable only to man, and one 
only to other species. Are there two purposes ? one applicable 
to the progressive species man, the other applicable to the non- 
progressive species, and to man so far as he is analogous with 
them ? If so, What is the latter purpose ?" 

It is obvious that other objects than human instruction must 
have been contemplated by the great Author of the universe 
when He subjected animals to pain and death before man ex- 
isted, and when He continues the same system in regions be- 
yond the reach of man's intelligence and control. In the 
work referred to, I have endeavoured to show, that, in re- 
gard to man, suffering is chiefly incidental, that it is not the 
object of any portion of his organization, and that, by obedience 
to the natural laws, it may, in a great degree, be avoided. In 
regard to the lower animals also, it appears to me that the 
state of suffering is not the normal but the incidental and 
exceptional condition of their being, and that destruction of in- 
dividual life, which forms such an important element in the 
system of nature, opens the way on the whole, directly and in- 
directly, to enjoyments which more than compensate the evils 
attending it. 



SECTION II. — IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 

The dogmas of the most numerous and influential sects of 
Christians represent man s condition in this world as the wreck 
of a better system, and many of them consider physical and 
animal nature also to have been involved in the catastrophe 
which befell him. 

The following description of the nature of man, and of his 



186 IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 

relations to God, is given in the Larger Catechism of the 
Church of Scotland, which was ratified and established by Act 
of Parliament, dated 7th February 1649, — which the great 
majority of Scotch children are taught to venerate as an un- 
questionably just and correct interpretation of Scripture, — and 
which, being thus entwined with their religious emotions, con- 
stitutes the basis of their religion : — 

" Q. 13. What hath God especially decreed concerning angels 
and men ? 

"A. God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his 
mere love, for the praise of his glorious grace, to be mani- 
fested in due time, hath selected some angels to glory ; and, 
in Christ, hath chosen some men to eternal life, and the 
means thereof : and also, according to his sovereign power, 
and the unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby he 
extendeth or withholdeth favour as he pleaseth), hath passed 
by and foreordained the rest to dishonour and wrath, to be 
for their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice. 

" Q. 14. How doth God execute his decrees ? 

"A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and 
providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the 
free and immutable counsel of his own will. 

" Q. 15. What is the work of creation ? 

" A. The work of creation is that wherein God did in the be- 
ginning, by the word of his power, make of nothing the world, 
and all things therein, for himself, within the space of six days, 
and all veiw good. 

" Q. 16. How did God create angels ? 

" A. God created all the angels spirits, immortal, holy, excel- 
ling in knowledge, mighty in power, to execute his command- 
ments, and to praise his name, yet subject to change. 

" Q. 17. How did God create man ? 

" A. After God had made all other creatures he created man 
male and female ; formed the body of the man of the dust of 
the ground, and the woman of the rib of the man ; endued 
them with living, reasonable, and immortal souls ; made them 
after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holi- 
ness, having the law of God written in their hearts, and 
power to fulfil it, with dominion over the creatures ; yet sub- 
ject to fall. 

" Q. 18. What are God's works of providence ? 

" A. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and 
powerful preserving and governing all his creatures ; ordering 
them, and all their actions, to his own glory. 

" Q. 19. What is God's providence towards the angels ? 

" A . God by his providence permitted some of the angels, wil- 



IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 187 

fully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting 
and ordering that, and all their sins, to his own glory, and es- 
tablished the rest in holiness and happiness ; employing them 
all, at his pleasure, in the administration of his power, mercy, 
and justice. 

" Q. 20. What was the providence of God toward man in the 
estate in which he was created ? 

" A. The providence of God toward man in the estate in which 
he was created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing 
him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the 
earth ; putting the creatures under his dominion, and ordain- 
ing marriage for his help ; affording him communion with Him- 
self ; instituting the Sabbath ; entering into a covenant of life 
with him, upon condition of personal, perfect, and perpetual 
obedience, of which the tree of life was a pledge ; and forbid- 
ding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon 
the pain of death. 

" Q. 21. Did man continue in that estate wherein God at first 
created him ? 

" A. Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own 
will, through the temptation of Satan, transgressed the com- 
mandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit ; and thereby 
fell from the estate of innocency wherein they were created. 

" Q. 22. Did all mankind fall in that first transgression ? 

" A. The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, 
not for himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descend- 
ing from him by ordinary generation sinned in him, and fell 
with him, in that first transgression. 

" Q. 23. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? 

"A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and 
misery. 

" Q. 24. What is sin ? 

"A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, 
any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature. 

" Q. 25. Wherein consisteth the sinfulness of that estate 
whereinto man fell ? 

" A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, con- 
sisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righ- 
teousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his 
nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made 
opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined 
to all evil, and that continually ; which is commonly called 
original sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgres- 
sions. 

" Q. 26. How is original sin conveyed from our first parents 
unto their posterity ? 



188 



IS THIS WOELD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 



" A. Original sin is conveyed from our first parents unto their 
posterity by natural generation, so as all that proceed from 
them in that way are conceived and born in sin. 

" Q. 27. What misery did the fall bring upon mankind ? 

" A. The fall brought upon mankind the loss of communion 
with God, his displeasure and curse ; so as we are by nature 
children of wrath, bond slaves to Satan, and justly liable to all 
punishments in this world, and that which is to come. 

" Q. 28. What are the punishments of sin in this world ? 

" A. The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, 
as blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hard- 
ness of heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections ; or out- 
ward, as the curse of God upon the creatures for our sakes, 
and all other evils that befall us in our bodies, names, estates, 
relations, and employments ; together with death itself. 

" Q. 29. What are the punishments of sin in the world to 
come ? 

" A. The punishments of sin in the world to come are ever- 
lasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and 
most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, 
in hell-fire for ever." 

" Of old," says a writer in the North British Review, "the 
earth was regarded as itself the centre of a system, and the 
heavenly bodies as moving round it. Even when there was 
no direct reference to this erroneous theory of the nature of 
celestial objects, it imparted a false light or colouring to every 
idea of terrestrial things." (Vol. xvii., p. 68.) This correctly 
expresses what appears to me to be the inevitable effect of 
the doctrine that this world, such as it now exists, is not an 
Institution, but a wreck. " It imparts a false light or colour- 
ing to every idea of terrestrial things." 

In the Catechism, then, there is a direct contradiction to 
the notion that this world, such as it now exists, is an Institu- 
tion. If the evidence before adduced is sufficient to support 
the latter hypothesis, then the hypothesis of a wreck is ne- 
cessarily excluded ; if not, we must embrace it with all its 
consequences. The solution of the question is of momen- 
tous importance. Before the religious sentiments and the 
reflecting intellect of the people can be induced to reverence 
and obey the precepts of God addressed to them in the order 
of nature, they must be taught that nature is still such as 
God made it, and that wherever it has been thoroughly 
understood, it appears to reflect wisdom and goodness. 
There can he no sacredness in nature, if it be intrinsically 
disordered. In studying it, we cannot come into commu- 



IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 18 

nion witli God, if, through either its inherent derangement 
or our own natural obliquity of mind, His wisdom and good- 
ness are not discernible in it ; while, if they are discernible, it 
cannot be justly said that man has lost communion with his 
Maker. If the Divine Institutions and adaptations in nature 
are calculated to promote the enjoyment of man, and to in- 
struct, improve, guide, and elevate him as a moral, religious, 
and intellectual administrator of this world, he cannot be truly 
said to be under God's " wrath and curse/' 

Farther, if the practical efficacy of religion in guiding human 
conduct, depends on its harmony with the order of nature, — 
then this representation of the world and its relations to God, 
is not only speculatively erroneous, but constitutes a positive 
and important obstacle to the progress of Divine truth. It 
tends to blind the intellect, and mislead the moral and reli- 
gious sentiments of the people, and thereby to retard their 
advance in practical religion, virtue, and civilization. 

Incredible as it may appear, there are millions of excellent 
persons whose religious emotions have been so interwoven with 
the doctrines of this and similar Catechisms that they are 
painfully affected when they hear the doctrines called in 
question. When we point out to them that the facts brought 
to light by geological researches and comparative anatomy, 
contradict the dogma that the present constitution and condi- 
tion of the lower animals are the consequence of " the curse of 
God upon the creatures for our sakes;" that chemical, anatomi- 
cal, and physiological facts shew that the ground and the 
human organism are adapted to each other in benificent rela- 
tionship, and contradict the text, " Cursed is the ground for 
thy sake," as it has been generally interpreted ; and that 
the physiology of the brain, and the adaptation of the exter- 
nal world to its functions, contradict the dogma that man's 
whole nature is corrupt — in other words, that the mental fa- 
culties are naturally incapable of legitimate action — and when 
we assure them that the authority on which they believe the 
contrary doctrine is only that of a Church, and of a Catechism 
compiled by fallible men, all of whom were ignorant of the 
sciences of Geology, Chemistry, Comparative and Human Ana- 
tomy and Physiology, and the physiology of the brain, and 
many of whom were unacquainted with any other natural, 
science, we only give them pain and provoke their anger. Did 
-not evil consequences to society flow from this belief, it might 
be unjustifiable to assail it ; but persons thus trained fear 
science, from the suspicion that it is at variance with their 
creed, and openly or covertly resist its introduction into schools. 
In Scotland, they insist that their Catechism shall form the 



190 IS THIS WORLD THE WRECK OF A BETTER SYSTEM ? 

basis of instruction in national schools ; and as they would be 
affronted were we to assert that they deliberately intend to 
teach contradictions, they must mean to twist all natural 
science into apparent accordance with its doctrines, or exclude 
scientific instruction altogether. Thelatteristhe course hitherto 
generally pursued. Nevertheless, the dogma that human nature 
is wholly corrupt, contradicts the facts that every faculty has a 
legitimate sphere of action, and that vice and crime are only 
abuses which, to an extent at present unascertained, may be 
prevented by an improved development of the cerebral organs 
and more thorough and practical instruction and training. 
Being opposed to a natural fact, it forces the individual who 
embraces it, either to shut his eyes against the true order of 
nature, and thus to mistake at once his duty to himself and to 
society, or to attempt to believe in contradictions, a process 
which perverts the moral faculties, paralyses the intellect, and 
renders consistent action impossible. By giving a false direc- 
tion to our intellectual faculties in searching for the path of 
duty, by maintaining our feelings, opinions, and practical 
habits either dissociated from our religious emotions, or, if 
joined with them, then in some degree at Avar with God's na- 
tural institutions, it brings upon us many of the miseries 
which it describes — viz. , the natural penalties of error, — and 
by this means supports its own authority and prolongs our 
degradation. 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



191 



CHAPTEE IX. 

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

SECTION I. — HOW SHOULD WE ACT, IF THE WORLD 
IS AN INSTITUTION ? 

If this world is an Institution^ and if God is its Author and 
Governor, it appears to be the duty and interest of man to 
regard it with reverence, to study its arrangements, and, as 
far as possible, to act in accordance with the rules which it in- 
dicates for the guidance of his conduct. We must cease to be 
affronted with it because it and our own organism are material; 
to revolt from it because our bodies and those of the lower ani- 
mals appear to be constructed on one plan, to run similar 
courses on earth, and to be adapted by surpassing wisdom, 
each species to its circumstances, and all to the general laws 
of Nature. In particular, we must cease to treat with ridicule, 
contempt, or indifference, the influence of the size and condi- 
tion of the brain in determining, in this life, the amount and 
condition of the mental power of individuals ; and no longer 
recoil from the proposition that this organ is the grand instru- 
ment by means of which God conducts the moral government 
of the world. We must approach Nature in the spirit of little 
children, humble, eager for instruction, and willing to obey. 
To reach this state of mind, we must lay aside that practical 
atheism which blinds us to the laws of God's Providence, ma- 
nifested in Nature, and devote our best energies to discover 
the Divine Will revealed in that record. Having discovered 
that Will, we must entwine it with our religious emotions, 
constitute it our religion, and make obedience to it the busi- 
ness of our lives. 

If we approach the consideration of the world in this 
spirit, we shall find that every organ, bodily and mental, stands 
in admirable adaptation to external nature, to the other organs, 
and to God; and that enjoyment, improvement, and elevation 
of character, are the objects of the whole, while pain, sorrow, 
and premature death, are only contingent consequences of ab- 
normal conditions. 

Man is ushered into life not only naked, but with an organ- 
ism that imperatively demands clothing and shelter ; with 
digestive organs that constantly require new supplies of food ; 



192 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



and with faculties that desire property, social consideration, 
and multifarious productions of skill and industry, for their 
gratification. The dogmas represent this state of things as a 
" curse" inflicted in consequence of Adam's first transgression. 
Viewed as a designed Institution, it Wears a widely different 
aspect. The earth is endowed with properties calculated to 
yield products which man may call forth by the application of 
his skill and labour, and which he may fashion into food, cloth- 
ing, houses, ships, and innumerable articles of utility and or- 
nament, for his own gratification. G-od has bestowed on him 
bones, muscles, and a nervous system which generate strength 
within him, and rendered labour agreeable. He has given 
him pleasure, recurring several times a day, in repairing, by 
the use of wholesome food, the waste of organic substance oc- 
casioned by the exertions of labour. He has given him cere- 
bral organs andmtellectual faculties which enable him to acquire 
knowledge and skill, and also moral and religious emotions to 
refine, elevate, and direct him in fulfilling the duties which he 
is appointed to perform on earth. Among these are faculties 
of Ideality, Wonder, Veneration and Hope, Causality and 
Comparison, which, carrying him beyond this earthly sphere, 
enable him to penetrate to some extent into the regions of 
boundless space and endless time, there to trace the power 
and wisdom of Grod, and to expand his own nature by inter- 
communion with the greatness and glories of the universe. 

Man's faculties enable him also to explore the depths of the 
earth and sea, the summits of the mountains, and the recesses 
of rocks; and there, in the minutest as in the grandest forms of 
Nature, he discovers design, order, beauty, and adaptation. 
When properly trained and directed, his religious emotions are 
capable of investing all these minute and stupendous objects, 
their properties and modes of action, with a holy reverence, as 
manifestations of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness ; and 
when things are so viewed, the inherent adaptation of his facul- 
ties to them all, renders it a gratification of the highest order 
to enter into this temple of the most High, to act as minis- 
tering servants in fulfilling the Divine designs, and to reap 
the joys which have been connected with obedience to the 
Divine laws. 

. When viewed in this light, labour ceases to be regarded as 
a " curse," and becomes holy and honourable, a privilege and a 
boon. The understanding then willingly tries to discover the 
conditions which must be observed to invest it with its pleasing 
and beneficial qualities, and how to avoid the course which 
renders it painful or abortive. If the world is an Institution, 
if physical nature is benevolently and wisely adapted to man's 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



193 



bodily and mental qualities, and these to it, then when labour 
is attended with suffering, aberration from the proper condi- 
tions of that relationship may be safely predicated, and we 
should be taught, trained, and encouraged, in reliance on Di- 
vine Wisdom and Goodness, to search out the sources of our 
errors, and, if possible, to dry them up. 

To turn our thoughts in disgust from labour as a " curse 
to regard its inconveniences as a punishment, and to leap at 
once in imagination into another sphere of existence in which 
there shall be neither toil nor sorrow, as a refuge from the evils 
which our unskilful arrangements produce in this life, is not 
religion, nor doing honour to God, but is really indulging in a 
maudlin sentimental egotism. 

If labour is not a curse but a boon, all our necessary duties 
and occupations, when fulfilled in conformity with the Divine 
law, become not only useful and pleasurable, but morally right 
and religious, and the whole aspect of the world is changed 
from one of gloom and misery to one of hope and encourage- 
ment to virtuous exertion. The grand objection to the propo- 
sition that this world is an Institution, is founded on the suf- 
ferings which have afflicted humanity in all ages and conditions 
of life. It is said that the individual is racked with pain, or be- 
comes the victim of sorrow ; that the young, loving, and happy 
husband and wife are engulphed in irremediable poverty, or se- 
parated by death ; or their hearts are wrung with anguish by the 
death of their beloved offspring ; that ruin's stern ploughshare 
often levels in the dust the fortunes that should have been the 
reward of the toils of life and the comfort of declining years ; 
that friends forsake us, scoundrels betray us, fire consumes 
our property, and floods extinguish our lives ; and that hence 
all is vanity and vexation of spirit. "We are told that all 
this misery has only one great object — to wean our affec- 
tions from the earth, and to concentrate them on God and 
Heaven. 

As declamation this objection appears formidable ; but 
when the facts on which it is reared, are more closely in- 
vestigated, their weight is greatly diminished, In survey- 
ing the phenomena of life, it is difficult to forget the obser- 
vation of Mr Kobert Forsyth in his work on Moral Science, 
that as this world is the only one of which we have experience, 
it is illogical to infer from its disorders, that God has made a 
better world in which to compensate us for the evils which He 
has appointed us to endure in this. It appears more respectful 
to our Maker to doubt whether we are rightly understanding 
His institutions, and acting properly our own part under them, 
before we condemn them in this querulous tone and fly to 

N 



194 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



heaven as a refuge from the alleged imperfections of earth. 
I beg leave, therefore, to direct the attention of the reader to 
the exposition of the sources of some of our chief sufferings 
given in the preceding pages, and to solicit his serious con- 
sideration of the question, whether it is within the power of 
man, in any degree, to mitigate or avoid them — and if so, to 
what extent they are the results of our own imperfect know- 
ledge and erroneous modes of action, or of inherent imperfec- 
tions in the constitution of Nature ? 

1st, Our sufferings from the operations of physical nature, 
and how to mitigate them, are treated of in Chap. VI. sec. i. 
p. 82. 

2d, Our sufferings from disease and death are considered 
in sec. ii. p. 89, and an attempt is made to estimate their true 
character as parts of the order of nature. 

3d, The sufferings that arise from misdirection of our 
emotional faculties, and from failure in our plans of life, and 
the ruin and destitution thence arising, and how to lessen them, 
are treated of in sec. v. from p. 118 to p. 130. 

4th, The evils that arise from placing individuals in si- 
tuations for which their natural qualities do not fit them, 
and how these may be avoided, are considered in sec. vi. 
p. 130 ; and in " The Constitution of Man," also, I have en- 
deavoured to throw light on these and similar objections to 
the doctrine of Divine benevolence pervading the order of 
Nature. 

This work is not designed as a full investigation of these 
and the other difficult and important questions which present 
themselves to a reflecting mind on surveying the phenomena 
of life ; but merely as an exposition of a useful method accord- 
ing to which, in my opinion, this enquiry should be conducted. 
I shall here add only a few observations on the provisions made 
by Nature for the mitigation of some of the sufferings before 
mentioned when they have actually, and from whatever cause, 
overtaken us. 

I have adverted to a process which an injury to our bones or 
muscles calls into play in our organism, in order to repair the 
wounded tissues and restore the part to health and strength. 
An analogous provision is instituted in the case of our mental 
afflictions. Every faculty receives pleasure from the presence 
of its objects, and suffers pain on their removal. No one 
objects to the first alternative, but many to the second ; yet, 
it is difficult to imagine how the first could exist without 
liability to the second. The effect of this order of things is to 
bind us to the objects of our desires by a double tie, the plea- 
sure of enjoyment, and the pain of deprivation. The mothers 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



195 



joy in her healthy, beautiful, virtuous, and intelligent child is 
intense ; but her grief in losing it is com mens urately great. 
Her affection is ardent in proportion to the size of the organ of 
Philoprogenitiveness and those of the moral emotions in her 
brain. This fact is positively demonstrable, and the pheno- 
mena of life confirm it, for there are mothers who are indiffe- 
rent to their children, and some who when under destructive 
excitement even kill them as troublesome encumbrances. 
Lately, in Chester, a father was executed for having led his 
two children into a garden and given them deadly stabs with a 
knife in the throat, as he had done with pigs when he assisted 
a butcher. There he dug a hole and buried them. Our philo- 
sophy and religion must embrace all the phenomena of nature, 
and not shrink from investigating their causes. In the first of 
these cases, the death of offspring by disease or accident is a 
dire calamity ; in the second, it would have been secretly felt 
as a pleasure. It is differences in the organisms of the indi- 
viduals, influenced by their circumstances, that give rise to these 
differences in feeling ; and there is reason to believe that by 
attention to the laws of reproduction, the brain may be greatly 
improved. 

Moreover, there is a condition of each organ corresponding 
to its state of gratification, and another corresponding to its 
state of pain, and we are so constituted that in process of time 
both conditions will abate, and in many instances cease by 
the mere action of the organism itself; in each case to the 
advantage of the individual. 

This proposition is strikingly illustrated in the case of the 
lower animals. Among these some are more and others less 
ardently attached to their young ; and those most attached 
suffer severe distress when they are removed. I have heard a 
cow utter heart-rending lamentations for days when her calf 
was led to the slaughter ; and who has not felt pained by the 
sufferings of the domestic cat when her kittens were taken from 
her and drowned ? Yet in a few months, in the ordinary course 
of nature, these mothers would have become indifferent to their 
offspring, and driven them from their presence. An explana- 
tion of these phenomena is found in processes established hj 
Nature in the organisms of the animals, and destined to come 
into action and cease when circumstances require them. Can we 
doubt that it is an organic impulse implanted and directed by 
the Author of Nature that incites the young bird to build her 
first nest, before she has either seen such a process performed 
or produced eggs to deposit in it ? 

Let us not shrink from applying the light afforded by these 
examples to our own species. In the human mother in whom 

n 2 



196 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



the organ of Philoprogeriitiveness is very large and the organs 
of the moral sentiments are deficient, there is an intense love 
of her children while they are young, but it decreases as they 
grow older, and almost entirely ceases when they become 
men and women. At that age they become the objects of the 
moral affections, which in her are feeble, and hence her indif- 
ference. This is no theory, but the statement of a fact which 
I have repeatedly observed. It shows that by the order of 
nature parental love decreases in women, and finally disap- 
pears when the object of it no longer requires its exercise, very 
much as occurs in the case of the lower creatures ; in other 
words, the organ being no longer stimulated by its object, 
which is a child and not a man or woman, ceases to act, and 
then indifference ensues. If the child, even of such a mother, 
should die prematurely, the organ being deprived of its object 
in the full blaze of its intensity, and before the period had 
arrived when its action would have naturally diminished, great 
anguish would be experienced. The removal of the object is 
the removal of the stimulus which maintains it in action, and 
we have seen that in her case the normal order of Nature 
diminishes her interest as her children grow up, until at last 
it ceases altogether. Now, even when the object is removed 
suddenly and prematurely, a similar process ensues. A gradual 
diminution of the action of the organ, attended by a corres- 
ponding diminution of the sense of deprivation takes place, 
until, in a healthy organism, by the mere lapse of time the 
painful emotion ceases. If the organ be very large and the 
brain feeble in constitution, a permanent morbid action may 
be established, which will produce inconsolable grief; but this 
is disease, and forms an exception to the general rule. 

Here, then, is one proof of benevolent natural provision for 
the removal of mental anguish. Other laws of our constitution 
conduce to the same effect. When one organ is in circum- 
stances which give rise to suffering, its action may be miti- 
gated by rousing others into play. It is in virtue of this law 
that religion consoles us in our afflictions. If we have large 
organs of Hope and Veneration, and believe in G-od, the activity 
of these organs manifested in submission to His will and reli- 
ance on His goodness, introduces pure, calm, and holy emo- 
tions into our consciousness, and by diminishing the circula- 
tion of the blood in the excited organs, it mitigates and 
assuages the intensity of our suffering. Our grief, however, 
is not instantly removed ; because cerebral action when strongly 
excited does not suddenly cease, and the brain reaches the 
normal state of repose only by degrees. 

The principles involved in these illustrations apply to all our 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



197 



faculties. I had a friend in whom the organs of the domestic 
affections and of the moral sentiments were large, and he was 
ardently attached to his wife. She died when he was yet in 
the vigour of life, and his sufferings were intense. Dr Andrew 
Combe was his physician, and so inconsolable was the patient, 
that for six months after her death he was in much anxiety 
lest a permanent morbid action of the brain should ensue. At 
length, however, our friend was accidentally thrown from his 
horse, and fell on his back on a newly-made road. He was 
severely bruised, and suffered great pain, but no bone and no 
vital organ w r ere injured. Dr Combe, in mentioning the acci- 
dent to me, said, " It relieves me from much anxiety, for it is 
not in itself attended with danger, and the pain will excite a 
new action in the brain, which will relieve the organs that are 
suffering so severely through the loss of his wife ; and on his 
restoration to health, his mental tranquillity will be re-esta- 
blished." The result coincided in every respect with that 
prediction. Although he lived many years after his loss he 
never married again. 

Similar phenomena occur in the case of widows. A sagacious 
woman who had long been employed as a sick-nurse, remarked, 
on being asked how a lady was, whose husband she had 
recently attended on his death-bed, ." Oh, she is suffering very 
severely ; I fear this will be a two years' case." " What do 
you mean by a two years' case ?" • • There are great differences 
in women ; some seem scarcely to feel at all when their hus - 
bands die ; others suffer for three or four months — some for a 
year — and a few, who are very sensitive and have been greatly 
attached, will be inconsolable even for two years, but the suf- 
fering rarely goes beyond that time. After two years, tran- 
quillity returns, and the usual habits of life are resumed." Be 
it observed that these remarks are equally applicable to men 
and women of all countries and religions, and therefore indi- 
cate that this recuperative process is really an institution, of 
Nature, and not an accidental occurrence, and that it is through 
the laws of the organism that it takes place. 

As a contrast to the friend before mentioned, I may notice 
the case of an evangelical clergyman well known in Edinburgh 
forty years ago. He was married four times, and the bridal 
day of each new wife was separated by only six or eight weeks 
from that of the funeral of her predecessor. What consolation 
did he require on losing his bosom friend ? Could he have 
looked to the pleasure of meeting her in heaven ? One would 
think that he should have blushed at the thought of seeing her 
there, considering the indecent haste with which he had pro- 
vided her successor. The development of his brain was widely 



198 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



different from that of my friend ; and he acted according to his 
impulses. I have heard some of his clerical brethren charitably 
and truly ascribe his conduct to peculiarity of disposition ; but 
it was in the disproportionate size of particular cerebral organs 
that the peculiarity had its rise, and such different mental re- 
sults from the same calamity render it necessary to find a 
consistent explanation of them, otherwise the moral govern- 
ment of the world remains an enigma. 

It is in virtue of the same benevolent arrangement of Nature 
for relieving one organ by exciting others, that active and labo- 
rious individuals suffer less from mental afflictions than the luxu- 
rious and the idle. The mother whose duties call on her for con- 
stant exertion of muscular strength and intellectual thought, is 
sooner relieved from the pain that attends the loss of her child 
than another who, nursed in the lap of luxury, has no impera- 
tive calls to excite the other organs into action for her relief. 

By the decay of power and activity in the brain and nervous 
system as age advances, Nature diminishes our attachment to 
the objects which we shall soon be called on to leave. From 
year to year the circle of our interests contracts : in reading the 
newspapers, for example, we first pass over scientific and ab- 
stract discussions ; next we omit the foreign intelligence ; by 
and by we care little about distant occurrences even in our 
own country, and we end by confining our attention chiefly 
to the incidents of our neighbourhood, and of our private 
sphere. 

The same benevolent preparation of our feelings to meet our 
destiny is apparent in the case even of premature death. I 
have heard physicians who had passed forty years in practice 
remark, that they had rarely met with patients who were un- 
willing to die. The changes which take place in the organism 
and which end in death, are attended by a corresponding in- 
fluence on the brain. Its energy is weakened, interest in its 
objects diminishes with its decay, and thus we become prepared 
to die. Many years ago I asked one of the gentlemen who ac- 
companied Sir John Franklin in his first expedition to the 
arctic regions, how he felt when strength for farther exertions 
had failed, and when the party were seated before what ap- 
peared to be their last fire : " Did you think painfully of the 
friends whom you expected never to meet again, of the home 
which you had left, and which contrasted so strongly with the 
frozen wilderness in which you were perishing ? What sus- 
tained you in that hour of trial ?" His reply was: " Home and 
the moon possessed equal interest in my feelings. We were so 
completely exhausted in mind and body by cold, starvation, 
and fatigue, that our whole interests were concentrated in the 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



199 



fire. My chief distress arose when it came to my turn to rise 
and place fresh timber on it to support the combustion. We 
knew that a party of Indians had been sent from the nearest 
settlement to search for and succour us, and that on their find- 
ing us before our fire was extinguished depended our only 
chance of life. This, although nearly a forlorn hope, was still 
possible, but, nevertheless, the pain attending the effort to rise 
and move the timber extinguished all other considerations/' 
A narrative closely similar was given by the captain of the 
American ship " Oswego," which was stranded on the coast of 
Africa. He was made captive by the natives, stript naked, 
placed on the back of a camel, and taken across the desert 
under a burning sun. For three or four days his misery was 
so intense that he searched for the means of committing suicide, 
but could not find them. After that time, a stupor came over 
him ; and during three months' travelling and living in the same 
circumstances, he had consciousness only of existence and of 
passing scenes, but little suffering. He was at length given up 
at an English settlement on the coast, and many months 
elapsed before his brain and nervous system fully recovered 
their usual powers of thought and sensation. 

These instances show that Nature sets a limit to our suffer- 
ings, whether the causes of them have been avoidable or un- 
avoidable, and does not leave us in hopeless misery when no 
farther sources of enjoyment are open to us. 

In the prevailing religious creeds little or no notice is taken 
of these benevolent provisions of Divine wisdom and goodness, 
and in consequence the benefits of a religious reliance on the 
prospective mitigation of our sufferings which they are calcu- 
lated to afford, are to a great extent lost. 

We need a new Reformation ; and if the views before pre- 
sented have to any reasonable extent a foundation in nature, 
Natural Keligion may now assume a new form, and come forth 
with a degree of beneficence and power which it has never 
hitherto possessed. 

The views stated in Chap. III. sec. iv. p. 34, that man is 
naturally a religious being, are not speculative propositions, but 
rest on positive evidence of the existence of tangible and 
visible cerebral organs, endowed with functions producing re- 
ligious emotions. Readers who doubt the existence of such 
emotions will perhaps find an explanation of their differing 
in this respect so widely from general opinion, in a deficient 
development of the organs in their own brains ; for it is certain 
that in all ages the great majority of mankind have given ex- 
pression to these emotions in religious observances and dogmas 
of one character or another. 



200 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



Again, the reader is referred to the elucidation given in Chap. 
II. p. 15 of the complex character of Keligion ; and to the evi- 
dence there adduced, that it is constituted by entwining intel- 
lectual ideas with the religious emotions, and that these ideas 
may possess almost any character, provided they are not in 
flagrant discord with the predominant mental condition of the 
people. 

If these two propositions are sound, it appears to follow that 
instead of the Mahometan, Hindoo, and other false religions 
resting on the sacred books which are represented as their 
foundations, they repose on the basis of the natural religious 
faculties of man ; and that the books are the mpre embodiments 
of the views of God and man and the world, entertained by 
certain individuals who aspired to give specific forms and direc- 
tions to the religious emotions of these nations. The soundness 
and usefulness of the intellectual ideas which by this means 
they formed into religious dogmas, will be correctly measured 
by the extent to which they embody or harmonize with the 
institutions and laws of God in Nature. Wherever the founders 
of these religions have converted false views of Glod, or erro- 
neous interpretations of the course of His administration in 
Nature, into religious dogmas, and thereby constituted them 
sacred articles of faith and rules of conduct, to be believed 
and followed, but never questioned, or tried by any appeal 
except to the sacred books themselves, they have misdirected 
the understandings and corrupted the principles of action of 
the people whom they professed to guide and instruct. 

Before sound, useful, and practical intellectual ideas can be 
associated with the religious emotions, so as to constitute a 
really true religion, we must possess correct notions of what we 
are capable of understanding concerning God, and His mode of 
governing the world ; and also sound views of our own nature, 
and of our relations to Him and His Institutions. This know- 
ledge being entwined with the religious emotions becomes 
sacred and religious ; and from being thus a hallowed embodi- 
ment of the real order of Nature it is highly practical. It en- 
larges and improves as knowledge of God's laws advances ; it 
harmonizes with all truth ; and if God be the Author at once of 
Nature, and of the human body and mind, such a religion 
must be wisely adapted to the wants, wishes, and welfare of 
man. 

The knowledge now alluded to must rest on evidence that is 
open to observation. At present, mental science as generally 
taught is a chaos, and cannot be used with advantage in 
religious investigations. The reader is referred to Chap. III. 
p. 23, in which I have considered the physical elements and 



PKACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



201 



mental faculties of man : the chief value of the observations 
there brought forward, consists in their forming an example of 
the kind of knowledge which, in my opinion, should form an 
element in a true religion. 

Another important, indeed a fundamental portion of such a 
faith, is a correct notion of what our minds are capable of con- 
ceiving concerning God. I have treated of this subject in 
Chap. V. p. 66. If we form erroneous notions on this point, 
and embody them as dogmas in our religion, we confound, be- 
wilder, and mislead the weak in mind, and outrage and repel 
the strong. Lately, a highly gifted and educated friend, with 
whom I was conversing on religion, said, " Please, define God/' 
My reply was, " Ask that intelligent dog which you are so fond 
of, to define Man." " Impossible," was the reply, " he has not 
our faculties and cannot comprehend us." " But surely," I re- 
joined, " he is nearer your level than you are to that of the 
Deity ; and how can you expect man to define a Being who so 
unspeakably transcends all that he is capable of conceiving ?" 
" Well, then, tell me what you mean by ' religious emotions ?' 
I never in my life felt such emotions ; religion has always ap- 
peared to me to consist in the desire to get to heaven and the 
fear of going to hell, and I never had any other feeling on the 
subject." I perceived a palpable deficiency in the organs of 
the religious emotions in the head of my friend, and had no 
difficulty in believing this statement to be true. It embodied, 
however, only an individual, and not a general truth ; for the 
experience of the majority of mankind is widely different. 

If we were permitted to discover the intimate consciousness 
even of excellent, sincere, and intelligent persons, we should 
find that extraordinary discrepancies of views and feelings 
exist in their minds on the subject of God and religion, and that 
an elucidation of the range of the human faculties in this and 
all other departments of knowledge, is as indispensable to a 
sound religion as to a true and useful philosophy. 

I have already remarked that the Bible does not reveal God, 
but commences by assuming His existence. " In the beginning 
God created the heavens and the earth." Subsequently, several 
descriptions are given of Him and His attributes ; but none of 
these do more than ascribe to Him human qualities, enlarged, 
purified, and exalted to the utmost stretch of our imaginations. 
Thus, man exists in time, and God exists in endless time, i.e., 
He is everlasting. Man possesses some power, God unlimited 
power — He is Almighty ; man exists in limited space, God in 
unlimited space — He is everywhere present ; man knows some 
things, God knows all things ; man is benevolent, God is long- 
suffering and merciful ; man has a sentiment of truth and 



202 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



justice — God is perfect truth and perfect justice. In the Old 
Testament, human passions even are ascribed to God ; He is 
jealous, angry, placable, and so forth. It is in vain to condemn 
descriptions of the Divine Being ascribing to Him human qua- 
lities, for we cannot conceive any object or being that does 
not lie within the limits of cognition of our faculties. The en- 
quiry, therefore, which I have attempted to institute — " What 
is man capable of discovering and comprehending concerning 
God ?" — is not a barren speculation, but one of a practical and 
important nature. 

Dr Johnson defines the substantive " Worship" to mean 
" Adoration ; religious act of reverence " to worship" is " to 
adore ; to honour or venerate with religious rites." Again, " to 
adore" is "to worship with external homage." Now, the 
external rites in which we embody our "worship," "rever- 
ence," or "homage," will obviously bear a relation to our motives 
in worshipping; and these will be influenced by our opinions of 
the character of the Being whom we adore. Tribes who ascribe 
the lower passions to their Deities institute immoral rites and 
ceremonies in honour of them. Those nations who regard God 
as cruel and revengeful, sacrifice animals and some of them 
men, to appease Him. Others, who ascribe to Him self-esteem 
and love of approbation, (their own predominant qualities,) 
offer him praise and glorification, and try to please him by ex- 
pressing their own consciousness, (generally with much ex- 
aggeration,) of abject meanness and unworthiness. 

If I am right in saying that although God has not given us 
faculties fitted to comprehend Himself, yet He has given us 
powers which enable us to understand His will in relation to 
ourselves and other beings over whom He has given us some de- 
gree of influence and control, and that in the order of nature, 
He has revealed duties which we are capable of performing, 
then we may reasonably consider whether the rites of our re- 
ligious worship should partake of the character of attempts to 
please God as a Being possessing human qualities, or be di- 
rected to do Him honour, reverence, and homage, by studying, 
expounding, and obeying His will as thus revealed to us. All 
existing forms of worship should be tried by their relation to 
what we can comprehend of the nature of God, and of His will. 
If without irreverence I might borrow an illustration from the 
relation between man and the lower animals, I should remark 
that it appears possible for one being to comprehend portions 
of the will of another, although he cannot conceive adequately 
the nature of that other. The dog, for instance, cannot com- 
prehend the nature of the shepherd, but he can learn the 
shepherd's will to be, that he, the dog, should tend the sheep ; 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



203 



and the dog, without attempting to know more of the shep- 
herd's nature than this portion of his will, may obey it and pre- 
serve the nock. The horses which in our circuses are trained 
to dance, to fire pistols, to fetch tea-kettles, and to perform 
other surprising feats, do not comprehend the nature of the 
men who teach them to do these things, nor apparently do they 
understand the object or design of the actions themselves ; but 
they seem to understand the will of the men, so far as it relates 
to the actions required of them, for they do the things they are 
taught. We should all agree that the dog sadly mistook his 
own capacities and his relations to man, if instead of hearken- 
ing to the shepherd's voice, obeying his will, and guarding the 
flock, he turned a deaf ear to the one and set the other at defi- 
ance, and commenced a grand speculation on the nature of his 
master, and his attributes. We should be still more astonished 
at the want of a due sense of his own deficiencies and position, 
if the dog, in the midst of his speculation on this, to him, in- 
comprehensible subject, and of his neglect of duty, ever and 
anon turned up his eyes and raised his fore-paws to his master, 
and uttered indications of intense admiration and venera- 
tion for him, calling him a being possessed of every fa- 
culty of canine consciousness in the highest state of perfection 
and in unlimited degree. And yet, ignorant and supersti- 
tious men do something analogous to this, when, instead of 
" walking humbly " with God, studying His Institutions and 
obeying His will, they ascrbbe to Him their own qualities, 
praise Him, and implore Him to protect them as His devoted 
worshippers ; they all the while violating His laws. In the 
words of Dr Fellowes, " The only use which some religionists 
make of their understanding is to perplex it by inquiring into 
the nature of God. They leave the easy and feasible to attempt 
the impossible. They forsake the clear and the simple to lose 
themselves in a region of clouds and darkness. For how can 
the finite hope to comprehend the infinite, the material the spiri- 
tual, the temporal the eternal ? God can be known only in His 
works. There His agency is seen. There His will may be 
traced ; there His laws be developed. But, what His nature is, 
or how He exists, must ever be past finding out. It is enough 
for us to know that He exists ; but how He exists, it is vain, 
and indeed presumptuous to inquire."* 

Christian believers institute forms of worship in honour of 
God, corresponding to their peculiar notions of His character 
derived from the Bible. In 1839 I visited, on a Sunday, the 
establishment of Shaking Quakers at Niskayuna, near Albany, 

* The Jlelvjion of the Universe, 4c, by Roeert Fellowes, LL.D. London, 1836. 



204 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



in the United States of North America. Visitors were freely 
admitted as spectators of their worship. 

The service began by one of the men delivering some sen- 
sible moral precepts ; after which, as the day was warm, the men 
stripped off their coats and laid aside their hats ; while the 
women took off their shawls and bonnets. They then com- 
menced singing and dancing ; at the same time waving their 
hands, which they held in the attitude of the fore-feet of the 
kangaroo. While singing, they knelt occasionally; and, at other 
times, several of them took their station in the middle of the 
floor and sang, while the rest danced round them. Their tunes 
were merry measures, with strongly marked time, such as are 
played in farces and pantomimes. By and by some of them 
began to bend their bodies forwards, to shake from side to side, 
and to whirl round. A favourite motion was to let the trunk of 
the body drop downwards, with a sudden jerk, to one side, care 
being always taken to recover the perpendicular before the 
equilibrium was lost. The head and trunk were drawn up with 
another jerk. In all their shakings and contortions they never 
lost the step in their dance, nor ran against each other. 

During these gesticulations some of the strangers laughed. 
One of the male Shakers, singling out a young lady whom he 
had observed committing this breach of decorum, addressed 
her thus : " Young woman, you laugh too much. We are 
a-worshippin' God : we want you to be quiet ; that's all we de- 
sire/' {Notes on America, Vol. II. p. 302, and Appendix, No. V.) 

This, then, was worship calculated to do honour to God and 
benefit to man, according to the notions which these people 
had formed of the Supreme Being. It will be observed that 
there is no natural relation between these ceremonies and the 
religious emotions of man ; and that their sacred character as 
acts of worship was only communicated to them by artificially 
associating them with the natural emotions. Do I greatly err in 
supposing that had their leaders expounded to them the order of 
God's government on earth, and enforced obedience to His laws 
as rules of conduct revealed in His works, and thereby called 
forth in their minds, holy, reverential, and grateful emotions 
towards God, and more earnest desires to discharge their own 
duties, the worship would probably have been not less acceptable 
to God, and perhaps more edifying and beneficial to themselves? 
In St Peter's magnificent cathedral in Kome, and in splendid 
churches in other cities, I have often been a spectator of the 
celebration of High Mass and other gorgeous ceremonies of the 
Eoman Catholic religion. These, too, were acts of Divine 
worship, intended to do honour to God and to lead the people 
to holy living. But here also the sacred character as worship 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



205 



•was not inherent in the ceremonies, but was communicated to 
them by training. 

Were I to ask a sound Scotch Presbyterian, whether, in his 
opinion, such a substitute as I have supposed to be made for 
the worship of the Shaking Quakers, would be admissible in 
their case, he probably would not be greatly shocked, but 
would calmly consider the merits of the question. If, how- 
ever, I were to hint that his own worship consists in the ex- 
pression, in prayers, psalms, and sermons, of the dogmas quoted 
on p. 186, and other similar notions of God and man ; to sug- 
gest that there is no inherent sacredness in them, and to ask 
whether they so completely accord with the highest views at- 
tainable of the character of God's administration on earth, and 
are so perfectly calculated to do honour to Him, and to direct 
the moral, religious, and intellectual faculties of the people 
towards holy, pure, and beneficent conduct, that such a sub- 
stitution would in this case also be admissible — I should pro- 
bably be accused of profanity, and call forth a storm of indig- 
nation. And why so ? Because in youth these dogmas and 
forms of worship had been entwined with the religious emo- 
tions of the Presbyterian, had become sacred in his mind, and 
now constitute his mode of expressing love, reverence, grati- 
tude, obedience, and every other holy emotion towards God. 
Why does not the same feelings arise in his mind when it is 
suggested that the substitute proposed might be an improve- 
ment on the worship of the Shakers or Eoman Catholics ? Sim- 
ply because his religious emotions have never been entwined 
with their ceremonies, and he is able to judge of them by his un- 
biassed reason. In point of fact all forms of divine worship de- 
rive their existence and efficacy from their being expressions of 
the longings and aspirations of the religious emotions inherent 
in the human mind ; and their power over the devotee depends 
not on their conformity to absolute truth, but on the size and 
activity of the organs of these emotions in his brain, and on the 
degree in which his intellect is satisfied with the dogmas, forms, 
or ceremonies, through which this activity finds expression. 

If this view be correct, it will be as impossible to extinguish 
religion, as to supersede music, painting, sculpture, dress, or 
any other thing which is desired in consequence of wants, and 
supplied by the activity of faculties inherent in the human con- 
stitution ; and the only important consideration is — What kind 
of worship stands in the truest and most direct relationship to 
the whole faculties of man, in their most cultivated and en- 
lightened condition ? Is it such dogmas and ceremonies as have 
just been mentioned ? or a service based on the laws of God 
and our relationship to Him and them as revealed in Nature ? 



206 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



Mr Angus Macpherson, in an excellent little work on " English 
Education asks " those who maintain the indispensdbility 
of the Greek and Roman classics in education "Is it not 
more probable that the proper and legitimate means for training 
the intellect coexisted with the intellect itself, not since the 
period of the rise and fall of the Greek and Eoman empires, 
but since the beginning of the world?" In like manner I ask 
whether, if there is a God, and if He has conferred religious 
emotions on man, as maintained in Chap. III. p. 34, it is not 
probable that He has constituted the order of this world in har- 
mony with these emotions, and fitted His natural Institutions, 
and the lessons which they teach, when regarded as manifesta- 
tions of His will, to become objects of reverential respect and 
obedience, and thus to constitute elements in divine worship ? 
It would be felt as a strange contradiction equally to our moral, 
religious, and intellectual emotions and perceptions, if the 
case were otherwise, and if such ceremonies as I have 
described were sacred, and God s will revealed in Nature were 
profane ; nevertheless the religious dogmas of all nations re- 
pudiate this view ! The only explanation of this rejection that 
I can conjecture is — that until the order of external Nature 
and the functions of the brain, by means of which the adap- 
tation of the world to our faculties becomes manifest, were 
discovered, the relationship of Nature to our religious emo- 
tions, although in all ages felt and recognised as existing, 
could not become the foundation of a practical religion. 

It is objected, however, that if we adopt rules of conduct 
founded on the order of nature, God and religion become equally 
unnecessary; and that knowledge of these rules and obedience 
to them, for the sake of the good consequent on obedience, is all- 
sufficient for our welfare. In answer, I remark — 1st, That men 
in whom the organs of the religious emotions and those of the 
intellectual faculties are developed to an average extent, believe 
intuitively in the existence of a Power and Intelligence above 
and beyond nature (see p. 66) ; and 2d, That there is abun- 
dant evidence in nature that this Being has constituted the 
human faculties in relationship to Himself and His works ; 
among which faculties are religious emotions. This will be 
regarded by some readers as begging the whole question ; but 
as I have already stated the grounds on which these views are 
entertained, I shall here only apply them in answering the 
foregoing objection. The objectors, although they dispense 
with a God and religion, will probably admit that we are 
placed in this world to discharge duties to ourselves and our 



* Glasgow : David Robertson, 1854. 



PKACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



207 



fellow-men. Well, then, the more and the higher the motives 
which can be supplied to induce us to discharge these duties, the 
greater will be the probability of their being ivell discharged. 
It is the duty of a soldier, for example, when commanded, to 
storm a fortress, at the peril of life and limb. He is under 
military discipline which provides that if he refuse he shall be 
shot. This is one motive, and it might be supposed to include all 
others. But if we add to it the desire of the applause of his officers, 
his comrades, and his country, constituting together the love 
of glory, we raise and strengthen his resolution by another and 
higher motive. Add a sense of moral duty to his country and 
his king, and a third and a still higher motive comes into play. 
And those who believe in God say, Add the religious emotions, 
which infuse new fire into the other faculties, and elevate 
and render them holy, and you will then kindle in the sol- 
dier a great moral and religious excitement before which death 
and danger will lose all their terrors. An army composed of men 
in this condition of mind, if equally numerous, and as well fed, 
equipped, drilled, and commanded, as an opposing force ani- 
mated by no motive but the fear of the Provost-Marshal, would 
sweep it from the field like a whirlwind. In the late war, the 
Emperor of Kussia appealed strongly to the religious emotions 
of his people, and in the Ironsides of Cromwell's army w T e may 
see the effects of such an influence on the soldier s courage. 

The foregoing illustration is applicable to all the duties and 
trials of life. The religious emotions appear to me to have 
been bestowed to sanctify, elevate, invigorate, and ennoble 
every act of our other faculties ; and although hitherto they 
have never been so applied with due intelligence, and there- 
fore have not been applied successfully, I can discover no ade- 
quate reason for despairing that this will yet be accomplished. 
The grand obstacle in the way is the existence and deep-rooted 
influence of the prevailing dogmas ; but, if the views now ad- 
vanced are founded in truth, these will be gradually superseded 
by sounder and more practical interpretations of Scripture. 

It is farther objected, that if we should base religion upon 
the will of God manifested in nature, there could be no general 
agreement in doctrine and practice, because every one sees 
nature through the medium of his own faculties, and these 
differ in relative power and cultivation in different individuals. 
This objection is to some extent well founded ; but it is equally 
applicable to religion founded on a supernatural revelation, as 
is demonstrated by the different interpretations put upon the 
Bible by the different Christian sects. The subject is con- 
sidered on pages 48 and 49, to which I beg leave to refer, and 
particularly to the answer given to this objection on p. 49. 



208 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



It is certain that trie impressions which each individual re- 
ceives from the external world, are modified by the condition of 
his own organism. Light does not exist to a man born blind, nor 
melody to one in whom the organs of Tune are very deficient ; 
colour is not fully and accurately perceived by one in whom 
the organs of Colouring are small, nor is the beauty of nature 
discernible by an individual in whom Ideality is very imper- 
fectly developed. Neither does one in whom the organs of the 
moral and religious emotions are small, but in whom those of 
the animal propensities and intellectual faculties are large, on 
surveying external nature, receive strong impressions of bene- 
volence and goodness as characteristics pervading it ; on the 
contrary, the representations of it and of man s condition em- 
bodied in the Catechism quoted on p. 186, appear to him to be 
nearer the truth. The only answer that can be given to the 
objections against nature, urged by persons thus organized, is, 
that men with better developments of brain and more cultiva- 
tion, receive higher impressions from it, and that the presump- 
tion is stronger in favour of its being really such as these 
perceive it, than of its being defective, and such as it appears to 
individuals with defective brains. There is a Sun, although 
the man born blind does not see it. 

If, then, the qualities of things, and their relations, modes 
of action, and results, are real, and bear evidence of design in 
the intelligent and moral Power which instituted and upholds 
them ; and if our intellect perceives the design, and also forms 
rules of action from the perception of it; then we need only to 
train the sentiments of Veneration and Wonder to hallow these 
as rules revealed through nature to our understandings by God, 
and they will become religious, — and to train the sentiments of 
Benevolence and Conscientiousness to recognise them as em- 
bodying duties prescribed by God, and they will become moral ; 
and thus the laws of nature will furnish us with a basis of reli- 
gion and morality. I cannot overstate the importance of our 
keeping in view, that all existing religions have been formed 
by associating intellectual ideas about God and His will, in some 
instances drawn from polluted sources, with the religious emo- 
tions ; and that there is no natural obstacle to our associating 
with these emotions, the conceptions of God and His will which 
we derive from the study of his works, and thus constituting 
a religion in harmony with our knowledge of existing things 
and their relations. It is presumable that such a religion 
would excite, gratify, cherish, and improve all the faculties of 
our mind. It would necessarily also embrace a code of syste- 
matic morality. 

Another advantage which would follow from acknowledging 



DISCIPLINE UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 



209 



Nature to be sacred, would be the introduction of an efficient 
religious discipline into life. Discipline consists in prescribing 
rules of action and enforcing observance of thern by motives 
that strongly influence the Will. The soldier, as I have said, 
affords a striking example of its efficacy. I knew a dirty, slo- 
venly, ill-conditioned lad, who used to drive coal-carts, and who 
in a fit of drunkenness enlisted as a soldier. Three months af- 
terwards I saw him again, and scarcely recognised his identity. 
He was then clean in person and attire, walked erect, and his 
manner was decided yet respectful. Discipline, — in other words, 
commands strictly enforced, but accompanied by instruction 
how to obey them, and the example of obedience in others, — had 
produced the change. In the case of the soldier, discipline ac- 
complishes much more than this. It renders the individual alert, 
obedient, resolute, and all-enduring, in the discharge of his 
duties; still the mainspring of its influence is Command strictly 
enforced. Now, we have a discipline of this sort in Nature, 
if we only open our minds to understand it. If we know 
the structure, functions, and laws 'of health, of the digestive 
and respiratory organs, we shall perceive that temperance, 
cleanliness, exercise, breathing pure air, and other observances, 
are prescribed to us by a command that is absolute in authority, 
that of God Himself, and enforced by a discipline that is irre- 
sistible. On the one hand, we have health, enjoyment, effi- 
ciency, abundance, and length of days, as the rewards of 
observance ; and disease, pain, incapacity, mental misery, 
physical destitution, and premature death, as the conse- 
quences of disobedience. Every organ and faculty, bodily 
and mental, acts under similar conditions ; and a work which 
should elucidate each organ, in its structure, functions, and 
modes of action, and the natural and inevitable conse- 
quences of its use and abuse, would reveal a system of 
philosophy, morality, and practical wisdom, which might be 
indissolubly combined with religion, for it would proceed 
from, and be enforced by a discipline instituted by, God. All 
these advantages are lost by our obstinate refusal to regard 
Nature as sacred, and by the exclusion of her authority and 
teaching as practical rules from our literature, our schools, 
our pulpits, and our legislative assemblies, either ignorantly, 
or out of deference to the dogmas of a dark and semi-bar- 
barous age. 

It is only by regarding Nature as an Institution, and its 
ruler as God, that religion can be successfully introduced as a 
sanctifying influence and an element of discipline into daily 
life ; and this is not only possible, but is so obviously practi- 
cable when earnestly and intelligently attempted, that only 

o 



210 



DISCIPLINE UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 



the misdirection of our faculties by the dogmas can account for 
its being so long neglected and resisted. I have been favoured 
with the perusal of the manuscript outlines of a series of lessons 
on Social Economy given privately by my friend Mr William 
Ellis of Lancaster Terrace, London, to several young pupils, in 
which he demonstrated that by the order of Nature every line 
of conduct — in the pursuit whether of wealth by farming, ma- 
nufacturing, navigation, commerce, or by the practice of profes- 
sions, — in order to be successful must be moral ; and that suc- 
cess follows skill, industry, and morality; as failure follows ig- 
norance, sloth, and immorality, with the same certainty that a 
rich crop of corn follows from skilful ploughing, manuring, 
sowing, tending, and reaping. 

The dogmas, on the contrary, represent a state of war as 
existing between God and Mammon ; but Mr Ellis shews 
that when this is understood to be a condemnation of the 
pursuit of wealth, it must be a mistake ; because, as the pro- 
duction of wealth is indispensable to human wellbeing, and 
also to the practice of morality and religion, there must be 
modes of pursuing it which are in harmony with morality and 
religion. Now, surveying in detail all trades and professions, 
and the specific acts by means of which their objects, — 
namely, the acquisition of wealth, social distinction, power, in- 
fluence, and other enjoyments, — are most successfully attained, 
he shews that morality must pervade and form the basis of 
them all. For example — The commercial maxim to buy in the 
cheapest and sell in the dearest market, is generally held to 
breathe the concentrated spirit of selfishness or Mammonism. 
But let us try this condemnation by the rules of reason and 
morality before we acquiesce in its justice. In Odessa, for 
instance, after a period of peace and a good harvest, there is a 
superabundance of wheat, more than its inhabitants can con- 
sume ; in consequence of which its price is very low. In the 
same city, however, there is a scarcity of cotton and woollen 
cloths and cutlery ; in consequence of which the prices of 
these necessaries of life are very high. The people of Odessa 
would feel greatly relieved if some benevolent person would 
bring them a supply of these articles and take in return a 
portion of their superabundant corn. But in Liverpool, in 
consequence of a bad harvest, there is a great scarcity of 
wheat; while, owing to the untiring industry of Manchester, 
Leeds, and Sheffield, there is a superabundance of woollens, 
calicos, and broad cloths, which lie unsold, because the people 
are forced to lay out their money in large amounts in buy- 
ing the scarce, and therefore high-priced corn. The people 
of these towns desire, above all things, that some kind friend 



DISCIPLINE UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 



211 



would bring them wheat and exchange it for these goods that 
are lumbering their warehouses. 

Now, a merchant who owns a ship and has abundance of 
capital, buys in Liverpool the manufactured articles at the 
prices at which their owners are anxious to sell them : — they 
are cheap, because they are superabundant, and the English 
people are too poor to buy them. He fills his ship with them, 
sends it to Odessa, sells them there at the price which the in- 
habitants offer to give him for them ; and with that money he 
buys the wheat with which they are encumbered, and pays 
them the price they ask ; it is a low price, because they have 
more wheat than they can consume or sell. The ship carries 
this cargo to Liverpool, and there it is eagerly purchased, be- 
cause it lessens the scarcity of food, one of the greatest evils 
with which human beings can be afflicted. But on counting 
the results of these transactions, the merchant finds that he 
has gained a considerable addition to his capital. This stimu- 
lates him and others to repeat the same course of transactions. 
And what is the ultimate effect ? The inhabitants of Odessa 
are at length relieved of much of their superfluous wheat, and 
the price of it has risen, to their great contentment ; while the 
supply of the manufactured articles has become so abundant 
that the prices of these have fallen, also to their great advan- 
tage. Turning to England, again, what has ensued ? Wheat 
has been imported so largely that it has fallen in price, and the 
poor rejoice ; while hardware, woollens, and calicos have been 
purchased, paid for, and exported to so great an extent, that the 
warehouses are empty, prices have risen, and the manufac- 
turers are again in full employment at remunerating prices. 

These results are all the direct consequences of Divine In- 
stitutions, which give differences of climates and products to 
different parts of the globe ; and the gains of the merchant are 
the rewards furnished by divine wisdom and goodness to those 
who intelligently, honestly, and diligently, apply their know- 
ledge, skill, and capital, in removing the wants and increasing 
the enjoyments of their fellow-men. Yiewed in this light, as 
the fulfilment of a divine appointment, buying in the cheapest 
and selling in the dearest market passes from the dominion of 
Mammon into that of G-od, and becomes not merely a moral 
but a religious act. Similar observations will be found to hold 
good in regard to all the other necessary acts and duties of life, 
whenever we shall consent to view this world as a Divine Institu- 
tion, and turn our whole faculties to discover its laws and to act 
conformably to them. It is from the pursuit of wealth by im- 
moral means, and the application of it to immoral or useless 
purposes, that the evils erroneously ascribed to it arise. As, by 

o2 



212 



THE HIGHER LIFE. 



the fiat of Nature, wealth is indispensable to human welfare, 
the sin even of the miser, who makes his property his god, 
consists not in accumulating and investing, but in something 
else. The wealth he has saved is so much capital gained to 
the society in which he lives, and when he invests it on good 
securities, he lends it to men of skill, enterprise, and industry, 
who apply it in still farther augmenting the capital of their 
country, by which all are benefited; for capital is an indispen- 
sable element in the production of the necessaries and comforts, 
as well as the luxuries of life. The misers sin lies in his 
neglect of all the personal, domestic, and social duties which 
are incumbent on him as the possessor of riches. It is by 
such conduct that he becomes the slave of Mammon and the 
contemner of God. The profligate spendthrift who dissipates 
an inherited fortune in immoral indulgences cannot be called 
a worshipper, but a contemner of Mammon, yet he is equally a 
contemner of God ; for, so far as lies in his power, he wastes 
the products of the skill and industry of his more virtuous pre- 
decessors, deprives himself of the means of discharging his 
personal and social duties, and impedes the progress of his 
country by destroying the fund for promoting the industry and 
rewarding the skill and intelligence of his fellow-men.* 

Mr Williams and I taught the laws of health and social eco- 
nomy on these principles, in a school kept by him in Edin- 
burgh, for the children of the working-classes; and while we 
were calumniated by excellent evangelical persons, as inculca- 
tors of infidelity, the more intelligent children understood, 
rejoiced in, and profited by the lessons, and even the less gifted 
were interested, so that no blows or chastisements were needed, 
exclusion from the lessons being felt to be the severest punish- 
ment that could be inflicted.f 

It has been objected to these views that they omit altogether 
the higher or spiritual life — the grand aspirations of the soul 
after eternity and universal knowledge, its longing after the 
everlasting progress of our spiritual being, its desire of a 
more intimate communion with God, and so forth : But what 
really is this higher life ? In St Peter s Cathedral in Kome, I 
have seen the most ignorant of men and women kneeling before 
the images of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and in the out- 
pouring of their devotional emotions towards them enjoying 
the higher life. It was unmistakeably expressed in their eyes, 
features, and attitudes. I have observed the widow and the 

* These principles are successfully expounded in several works on Social Economy, 
by Mr William Ellis, published by Smith, Elder, & Co., of London. The latest is en- 
titled, "Where must we look for the further prevention of Crime?" and is both in- 
teresting and instructive. 8vo, pp. 100, price Is. 1857. 

f See Reports of Mr Williams' School, sold by the publishers of this work. 



THE HIGHER LIFE. 



213 



mother, broken down with sorrow for the loss of a beloved 
husband or child, there unburden their souls of grief, and 
depart relieved and comforted. I have seen a Swedenborgian 
congregation in possession of the higher life as the religious 
emotions soared through their spiritual world, and drew joy 
and hope, peace and consolation, from the communications 
which they thence received. The congregation of Shaking 
Quakers, before described, were seen rising into ecstasies, and 
almost sinking into convulsions, under the influence of their 
higher life, elicited by their chants, their songs, and their 
dances. I have listened to the Calvinist describing his higher 
life, unfolding its glories, its consolations, its inspiring hopes, 
and its strengthen ing grace, all elicited by his contemplation 
of the length and breadth, the height and depth of the love of 
Christ, in giving himself up as a sacrifice for sin. I have 
heard the Unitarian pour forth his vivid experience of the 
higher life, founded on his deep apprehension of the all-em- 
bracing benevolence, wisdom, and justice of God, on his per- 
ceptions of Gods overflowing love, pervading all beings, time, 
and space. And were we to visit Turkey, Persia, and Hindos- 
tan, there also should we find thousands of ardent worship- 
pers, each in the blaze of enjoyment of his own higher life. 
Now, what is the true meaning and explanation of these phe- 
nomena ? One circumstance characterises them all, — the 
organs of Veneration, Wonder, and Hope, are intensely 
active, although directed differently in each devotee. The 
emotions and the pleasure accompanying their activity are 
natural, and constitute the higher life ; but their direction to 
particular objects is accidental, and depends on what they have 
been trained to venerate. Morbid excitement in the cerebral 
organs is also by some individuals mistaken for experience of 
the higher life. See pp. 41, 42. 

It thus appears that it is not the absolute truth of religion, 
i.e. its truth in the sight of God, that gives it the power of pro- 
ducing in believers what is called the higher life, with all the 
hopes, joys, consolations, and feelings of resignation and endur- 
ance, which accompany it ; but that these depend primarily on 
the force with which the faith stimulates the religious facul- 
ties of the devotee. To do this effectually, the faith and ritual 
used as exciting instruments must be in harmony with, or at 
least not violently in contradiction to, the state of enlighten- 
ment of his other faculties. Hence, the lower the moral and 
intellectual development and instruction of the worshipper, the 
farther may his creed and ritual deviate from reason, and from 
the dictates of benevolence and justice, without impairing their 
emotional influence on him. But conversely, the more power- 



214 



SCIENCE AND INFIDELITY. 



ful the intellect, and the higher its instruction, the larger the 
moral organs, and the more extensive and beneficial the sphere 
in which they have been trained to act in any individual, the 
more pure, rational, beneficent, and self-consistent, must a creed 
and ritual become, before they will be capable of satisfying 
the demands of his faculties, and of eliciting in him that fervid 
action of the religious emotions which constitutes the higher 
life. If the view stated in Chap. Y. be correct, that man can- 
not comprehend the nature and mode of being of God, because 
the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite, it follows that the 
only rational conception we can form of the Divine Being con- 
sists of a concentration and personification by our own minds 
in Him, of all the power, wisdom, and goodness discernible in 
nature ; and if so, then the more we know of the manifestations 
of these qualities, the higher must our conceptions of the attri- 
butes of that Being become. And if the " highest" life con- 
sists in the highest exercise and condition of our faculties, it 
follows, that in proportion to the enlargement of our know- 
ledge we shall augment the means of vivifying our emotional 
faculties, and of bringing them into harmony with the institu- 
tions of God, and thereby approach the highest point of im- 
provement permitted to man. 

It is often stated as a reproach to science, that it makes men 
infidels. The real fact is, that by carrying their intellectual 
and moral faculties to a higher state of development and culti- 
vation, by giving them larger and truer views of God and His 
works, it renders the creeds and rituals of a less enlightened 
age, with their barbarous dogmas and conflicting propositions, 
repugnant to their minds, and incapable of exciting and satis- 
fying their religious emotions. The greater the number of 
other faculties in addition to the religious, which any faith 
and worship are able to excite and satisfy, the greater will be 
their influence over practical conduct ; and their power of lead- 
ing to beneficial results will diminish, and ultimately cease, in 
proportion to the extent to which they become isolated from 
the other powers. This will hold good whether the discre- 
pancy between the faith and ritual and other faculties, arises 
from the improvement or degradation of the latter. The 
creeds of the sixteenth century do not now exercise the same 
influence over men's minds which they did wdien, through a 
corresponding ignorance and barbarism, the whole faculties 
were in harmony with them. This point has been considered 
in Chap. L, to which I beg to refer. 

The longing after the infinite, which is at present regarded 
by many persons as the grand foundation of religious life, when 
traced to its source, does not appear to merit this distinction. 



THE HIGHER LIFE. 



215 



"Each propensity and sentiment, from producing a mere desire 
or emotion, is constitutionally indefinite in its longings and as- 
pirations. It needs the intellect to limit and guide it. If the 
organs be large, active, and unrestrained by enlightened intel- 
lect, there is no boundary to the desire of Acquisitiveness for 
property, of Self-Esteem for dominion, of Secretiveness for the 
mysterious, of Ideality for the beautiful and perfect, of Bene- 
volence for universal good, of Conscientiousness for all-pervad- 
ing justice, of Veneration for devotion and worship, of the Love 
of Life for eternal existence, of Wonder for the new, the 
grand, the spiritual, the supernatural, and so forth. If we ask 
the most exalted devotees of every religion and of every sect to 
define their higher life, and if we analyse their definition, we 
shall find that indulgence in boundless aspirations proceeding 
from the religious emotions, constitute its essential element. 

The higher emotional faculties are the sources not only of 
religious devotion, but of pure morality and the sublimest 
poetry. In the present state of human knowledge, however, 
when the moral, religious, and political opinions of most men 
rest on a confused basis of the natural, founded on experience, 
and the supernatural drawn from Scripture, the preacher, 
author, poet, orator, and political agitator, who is capable of 
strongly exciting not them chiefly, but the lower propensities 
also, wields a stupendous power over his fellow-men. The 
emotions yield to his passionate and thrilling calls ; intellect 
stands aside ; and his hearers glow with his fervour, give up 
their souls to his impulsive guidance, and embrace his proposi- 
tions. But because the means of attaining the real, permanent, 
and only desirable gratification of the emotional faculties, are 
fixed and regulated by a power which does not yield to human 
impulses ; and because these means can be discovered and 
employed only by the intellect enlightened by observation and 
experience; the schemes of even the most eloquent orators, 
whenever they partake of the vagueness of the emotional facul- 
ties, or are based on erroneous or imperfect views of the natural 
means of achieving good, fail and end in disappointment. 

What, then, should constitute the higher life in natural reli- 
gion ? The vivid action of the religious emotions, combined 
with that of the moral sentiments and of the intellect, en- 
lightened by the highest attainable knowledge of God's will 
manifested in nature, and all directed to the attainment of a 
pure, holy, and beneficent state of being. The ecstatic delights 
of fervid devotion and undoubting faith ; hope, joy, and resig- 
nation ; consolation in affliction, and strength to endure and 
persevere in the dark hours of life, may all be drawn from these 
sources at least as copiously and certainly as from the fountains 



216 EFFECTS OF RELIGION WHEN SEVERED FROM NATURE. 

from which, in many countries, they are now sought to be de- 
rived. According to this system, God's institutions are the 
basis of our judgments, and His will the rule and standard of 
our actions. The framework of our bodies arid the endowments 
of our minds are ascribed to Him. Every relation in which we 
stand is viewed as of His appointment. In the language of 
Scripture, therefore, " Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever 
we do, we do all to the glory of God," when we apply every 
function of mind and body to its legitimate uses, from defer- 
ence to His will, as well as in the conviction that by this means 
alone can we reach our own happiness. 

In reference to personal and social improvement, religion 
severed from the laws of nature stands in the same predica- 
ment as pure mathematics do when they are unapplied to prac- 
tical objects. Ask the profoundest mathematician who had 
never studied navigation or served on board a ship, to steer a 
vessel to China, and his mathematics would be perfectly inade- 
quate to enable him to execute the task. To that abstract 
science, he must add a practical knowledge of ships, and of the 
mode of applying mathematics to direct their course at sea. 
Ask a pure mathematician to construct a railroad or a steam- 
driven spinning-mill, and he would be equally helpless ; be- 
cause his science needs to be embodied in practical forms 
before it can become useful. In like manner, religion, which, 
in itself, is a sentiment or emotion, must condescend to borrow 
aid from nature, before it can accomplish any practical earthly 
purpose whatever. All personal and social improvements have 
been made by the Euler of this world to depend on physical 
and physiological conditions. Health and life depend on them, 
wealth and destitution depend on them, mental vigour, even 
the ability to pray, depends on them ; for when the brain is 
incapable of action, the religious emotions vanish. I repeat, 
therefore, that before religion can accomplish its highest objects, 
— the glory of God and the wellbeing of man, — it must include 
an embodiment of the will of the Infinite, as manifested in His 
institutions. 

Tracing the condition of the religious emotions through the 
savage, barbarous, and modern stages of society, we perceive 
that the higher the enlightenment of the intellect, and the more 
perfect the cultivation of the moral sentiments, the more pure 
and beneficent has religion become, and the more effectually 
has it operated on the minds of its votaries as a stimulus to 
social improvement. The same results will probably distin- 
guish its future course. The present prevalent creeds of Eu- 
rope appear to be at war with its science, and in consequence 
to be retarding its progress. Eeligion is employed as the in- 



RELIGION PROGRESSIVE. 



217 



strument of priests and sovereigns to maintain themselves in 
authority, and to repress the moral and intellectual life of 
nations. In our own dominions the conflict of clerical leaders 
for power over the laity distracts the public mind, and ob- 
structs many enlightened measures of improvement. It seems 
incredible, however, that when the religious emotions, freed 
from the trammels of barbarous ages, shall in future centuries 
ally themselves with the knowledge and morality of an ad- 
vanced civilization, a richer harvest of individual enjoyment 
and social happiness will not be reaped from their action. The 
connection of our mental powers with cerebral organs gives a 
substantive basis to our moral, religious, and intellectual percep- 
tions, and enables us to demonstrate their foundation in nature, 
which it is extremely difficult to do when each person judges 
only by his individual consciousness, illuminated by his own 
experience. In this state of things, many men deny the exist- 
ence of emotions and perceptions which they cannot them- 
selves reach, and pursue phantoms under the unsuspected 
influence of peculiar states of their own organisms. But this 
state of things must pass away, and the sphere and influence 
of natural religion must necessarily enlarge and rise in pro- 
portion to our knowledge of the qualities, modes of action, and 
relations of things. The discovery of the functions of the brain 
will supply an indispensable element towards the foundation 
of a progressive code of religion and morality, ever enlarging, 
and becoming more pure and exalted as the human faculties 
and knowledge advance. Mr John Stuart Mill, in the Sixth 
Book of his Logic, states, in his own language, that our desires 
of improvement proceed from the propensities and sentiments, 
but that these give mere desires, and cannot tell us how to 
satisfy them. This depends on knowledge, and knowledge on 
intellect. The intellectual state of any nation is, therefore, 
says he, the best index of its real civilization ; and in the history 
of the world, every great intellectual discovery was the pre- 
cursor, and the indispensable precursor, of a great stride in 
material civilization. " Every considerable change, historically 
known to us, in the condition of any portion of mankind," conti- 
nues Mr Mill, " has been preceded by a change of proportional 
extent in the state of their knowledge, or in their prevalent 
beliefs. From this accumulated evidence, we are justified in 
concluding, that the order of human progression in all respects 
will be a corollary deducible from the order of progression in 
the intellectual convictions of mankind, that is, from the law 
of the successive transformations of religion and science." 
These remarks are equally profound and true ; yet how far is 
the world from believing that the discovery of the physiology 



218 



CONSEQUENCES OF THE PREVAILING DOGMAS. 



of the brain, — in other words, of the substantive basis of our 
mental faculties, and of the means by which they act, and their 
relations to external objects, — will lead to important reforma- 
tions in religion and moral science ! * 

Sec. 2. the consequences which have followed fkom the 
prevailing religious dogmas. 

The bearing of the views of the Divine government before 
stated on Christianity, is an important consideration, but I do 
not enter into it in detail, because Christians are divided into so 
many different sects, each of which maintains its own views to 
constitute the true religion of Jesus Christ, while it denounces 
those entertained by other sects as " soul-destroying errors," 
that it is difficult for a layman to select a view of it which will 
not be widely disputed. The evangelical Protestants, for ex- 
ample, often apply these words to the Koman Catholic Faith ; 
while at the same time they denounce Unitarians as infidels. 
Their own doctrines, on the other hand, are described by some 
of their opponents in terms not less reproachful: by John 
Wesley, for example, the doctrine of election is described 
in the following terms : — " The sum of all this is : One in 
twenty (suppose) of mankind are elected, nineteen in twenty 
are reprobated ! The elect shall be saved, do what they will ; 
the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can. This is the 
doctrine of Calvinism, for which Diabolism would be a better 
name, and in the worst and bloodiest idolatry that ever defiled 
the earth, there is nothing so horrid, so monstrous, so impious 
as this/'f (Southeys Life of Wesley, 3d edit., vol. i. p. 321.) 

If a majority is entitled to decide, then the Roman Catholic 
Faith has the best claim to be considered as the true exposition 
of the religion of the New Testament ; but in religious ques- 
tions we cannot admit numbers as decisive of truth. 

I confine myself, therefore, to the dogmas taught in the 
standards of the prevailing churches of Christendom, and I 
use the expression "doctrinal interpretations" because nearly all 

* The views entertained by eminent divines on the authority of the law of nature in 
reference to morals and religion, have been collected and published in a learned and in- 
structive work by Robert Cox, entitled " Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties considered 
in relation to their Natural and Scriptural Grounds,"' &c. (Edinburgh, Maclachlan and 
Stewart ; London, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1853), pages 202-7, to which I beg leave to 
refer. The chief error of the writers there cited, lies in their ascribing to mm in general, 
moral, religious, and intellectual emotions and perceptions which arise naturally only in 
men having well-developed and active brains. And being unacquainted with the func- 
tions of the brain, they could not render natural religion so practicable as it now is. 

f See other striking examples of the way in which the adherents of the different sects 
speak of each other's views of Christian doctrine, in Mr Cox's " Sabbath Laws and Sab- 
bath Duties," before referred to, pp. 54, 55, 127-9. 



CONSEQUENCES OF THE PREVAILING DOGMAS. 219 

that passes in the world for Christian faith, really consists of 
systems of doctrine founded upon particular texts, interpreted 
in a particular manner by particular individuals or conclaves 
of men ; and in point of fact, the Bible contains no systematic 
exposition of religious doctrine which all men must necessarily 
acknowledge as Divine revelation. It is chiefly as expounded 
in catechisms and creeds that the Christian religion is now 
practically operating on social well being ; yet were a dozen 
men, possessed of the highest order of brains (the best natural 
foundation for the ability to judge soundly), and thoroughly 
instructed in the ancient languages, and in the modern sciences 
(cerebral physiology included), to read the Bible, without pre- 
vious bias, and were they commissioned to produce an authori- 
tative interpretation of it, I doubt very much if they would 
present to the world a facsimile of any existing creed or articles 
of faith. Miss Joanna Baillie, in her " View of the general 
tenor of the New Testament regarding the nature and dignity 
of Jesus Christ"* remarks that the three leading systems 
of doctrine on this subject u stand far and far apart ;" and if 
besides these, there are very many minor doctrinal interpre- 
tations of Scripture embraced by large and intelligent bodies 
of men, it is clear that none of these can, on the ground of their 
perfect infallibility, be logically accepted as Divine revelation, 
calculated to guide the faith and practice of all mankind in 
reference to time and eternity. Instead of progress being made 
towards unity of belief, the process is the reverse. During the 
last fifteen years, I have resided for periods of greater or less 
duration, in the United States of North America, Germany, 
and Italy, have visited France, and been a good deal in Eng- 
land ; and from the nature of my published works, I have been 
brought into familiar and confidential communication with many 
able and highly instructed individuals of all faiths and sects : 
and my conclusion is, that Christianity, as taught in the pre- 
vailing creeds, is already undermined in the convictions of very 
many men and women of great capacity and attainments, and 
unexceptionable moral character. Archbishop Whately re- 
marks, that " Force, together with fraud, the two great engines 
for the support of the Papal dominion, have almost annihilated 
sincere belief in Christianity among the educated classes, 
throughout a great portion of Europe." According to my ob- 
servation, the obstinate and arrogant adherence of the clergy 
to Protestant articles of faith, at variance with the science of 
the age, has to some extent produced a similar effect in coun- 
tries that are not Eoman Catholic. Indeed, I have found that 
even where belief in some form of doctrine is still professed, the 

* Longman and Co. 1831. 



220 CONSEQUENCES OF THE PREVAILING DOGMAS. 



greatest liberties are often taken with it, one individual rejecting 
one point of faith, and another another ; so much so, that had I 
written down the views of some dozens of professed believers 
and published them, they would have presented a spectacle of 
extraordinary conflict and inconsistency. This statement, I am 
convinced, will be confirmed by most persons who have en- 
joyed similar means of observation both at home and abroad. 
Those, on the other hand, who travel wrapped up in an impene- 
trable conviction of the infallibility of their own opinions, will 
rarely find other men inclined to disclose to them their true 
sentiments on religious subjects. 

There are indeed liberal sects, and many high-minded indi- 
viduals, who reject the extreme doctrines of Church stand- 
ards, and see in Christianity only a religion of love to G-od and 
good will to man, and who regard its founder as a sublime 
instructor, teaching us by precept and example how to live 
and how to die. To their views of Christianity my objections 
do not apply. But these sects and individuals are still so few 
in number, and so feeble in social influence, and many of them 
so deficient in courage to proclaim their convictions, and to 
support them by open and active efforts, that practically, their 
interpretations of Christianity exert little influence on society. 
The views embodied in the standards of the predominant 
churches, appear to me to be now acting as great obstacles to 
social progress and civilization. The grand principles there 
represented are all supernatural ; and the revelations of the 
Divine will in nature, as a basis of morals and religion, are ex- 
cluded from schools, colleges, churches, and social considera- 
tion ; and thus these interpretation s are chaining up the moral, 
intellectual, and religious faculties of many superior minds. 
The earnestly religious are truly the salt of the earth ; their as- 
pirations are high, their motives pure, and the objects at which 
they aim transcendently important. It is grievous therefore 
to see so many of them trammelled by the fetters of narrow sec- 
tarian creeds, wasting their lives and their substance in wars 
with each other ; opposing now one alleged error of doctrine 
or form, and now another ; clearly observing the mote in their 
neighbour's eye, but never discerning the beam in their own ; 
while God's fair world of mind and matter lies before them, 
inviting in vain their highest efforts to improve it, and to ren- 
der it a scene of greater goodness, more fervent piety, and purer 
happiness than it now exhibits. The Divine laws of religion, 
morality, and practical conduct revealed in Nature are nearly 
banished from the pulpit, and few attempts are made to har- 
monize them with Christianity. In England, disquisitions about 
the real presence, prevenient grace, the efficacy of baptism, 



CONSEQUENCES OF THE PREVAILING DOGMAS. 221 

the communication of the Holy Spirit by Ordination, and so 
forth, usurp the place of God's revelations in Nature ; while in 
Scotland the dogmas cited on pages 186-7 are made to play a 
similar part. 

The prevailing dogmas rest on the Fall of Man as their 
basis. The religion of nature appears to contradict this as- 
sumption ; for if the human constitution, bodily and mental, 
has been adapted to external nature such as it now exists, and 
nature to it, then apparently man never was essentially dif- 
ferent from what he now is. 

The next dogma is that the Fall brought sin into the world, 
and all its woes ; and that the Second Person of the Trinity, 
himself God, assumed the form of man, suffered the penalty of 
that sin, atoned for it, and thereby restored the human race to 
the favour of God. And as a corollary, it is said that it is 
only through faith in that atonement, and through the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, that the moral taint introduced into 
man's nature by the Fall can be removed, and the punishment 
due for it and for each individual's actual transgressions can be 
averted. 

The doctrines of the Fall and the Atonement are rejected 
by some sects as unsupported by sound interpretation of Scrip- 
ture ; and they are entertained by other sects and individuals 
under various modifications. Into these questions it is not my 
province to enter, and therefore I confine myself to observing, 
that according to the views before expounded, moral evil arises 
from abuse of our bodily and mental functions, and the natural 
mode of averting it is to give to all the organs of body and 
mind the best possible constitution and a proportionate deve- 
lopment, and then, by instruction in the laws to which God 
has subjected them, and which are real indications of His Will 
in regard to their uses, to direct the whole to their highest 
objects. If this be the true view of man's nature and relations, 
the dogmas must be tried by this new standard, and the reme- 
dies proposed by them for human evils must be reconsidered in 
reference to this exposition of their causes. Modern science 
and the physiological constitution of man, and the conse- 
quences which flow from them, were undoubtedly unknown 
to the earnest but ignorant men who compiled the dogmas from 
Scripture. 

Lastly, the dogmas represent the Gospel to have brought 
" life and immortality to light," and to teach a resurrection 
of the body from the dead, a Divine judgment, and the final 
consignment of all human beings either to heaven or hell — that 
is, to an eternity of happiness or misery — according to their 
good or bad conduct in this world, or, as is the doctrine of many 



222 



DISCIPLINE UNDER THE DOGMAS. 



sects, according to their having believed soundly or unsoundly 
in points of faith, or even according to an eternal decree con- 
signing them to the one or other of these destinations, passed 
on them before they came into existence. 

Those doctrines lie beyond the limits of science, and I shall, 
therefore, confine my remarks to what appear to me to be se- 
rious abuses of them. In regard to heaven : It is generally 
allotted to the true believer, who shews the soundness of his 
faith by his good works ; but some sects maintain that faith 
alone suffices to ensure salvation. Now, the capacity of an in- 
dividual to believe anything and to do any works, depends on 
the development and condition of his brain, and the training 
and instruction he has received. The higher his moral and phy- 
siological endowments, the better is he qualified to believe and 
act rightly, and the lower, the less so. These conditions are 
determined chiefly for the individual, and little by him. More- 
over, by the order of God's moral government, as before ex- 
plained, highly-endowed individuals have the fewest tempta- 
tions to resist, and struggles to maintain, in this life ; and as a 
general rule they enjoy the greatest share of happiness allotted 
to humanity. These are great and precious boons conferred 
on them by their bountiful Father ; but the best use which 
they can make of such gifts appears to me to give them no 
claim to heaven — their trust for it should rest exclusively on the 
will of God. Farther, they are called on by their gifts, to use 
all the means in their power to raise themselves and their less- 
favoured brethren higher in the scale of improvement, by seek- 
ing truth, abandoning error, and removing personal and social 
evils, and in all things endeavouring to conform to the Divine 
laws. Instead of doing so, many highly endowed persons 
teach only catechisms and dogmas in schools and from the 
pulpit, and too generally leave the people the prey of bad 
habits, foul air, intemperance, and destitution, without instruct- 
ing them how to make adequate efforts to remove the natural 
causes of these evils. Crime is frequently the result of a low 
development of brain placed in adverse circumstances, yet 
when an offence has been proved to the satisfaction of a 
jury, the accused is condemned to punishment without refer- 
ence to these causes. No spectacle is more common than to 
see an unhappy individual, after a life of immorality, which 
society regards as so flagrant that his existence can no longer 
be tolerated on earth, assured by his spiritual guides that his 
repentance in prison, accompanied by unhesitating faith in the 
atonement of Jesus Christ, will prove sufficient to transmit his 
soul from the gallows to heaven, where he will enjoy through 
eternity the society of God, angels, and just men made perfect. 



DISCIPLINE UNDER THE DOGMAS. 



223 



The felon who throughly believes this, declares, and apparently 
with good reason, that the day of his ignominious death is the 
happiest of his life : but surely this is an abuse of the Scrip- 
ture doctrine. 

In reference to hell : It is generally assigned to unbelievers, 
to misbelievers, and to evil-doers. But erroneous belief and 
evil deeds arise chiefly from a deficient or an ill-proportioned 
development, or an unfavourable constitution, of the brain, or 
from these combined with deficient training and instruction. 
These evils are generally inherited, and not voluntarily selected 
by individuals. According to this view, the tendency to vice, 
crime, and sin, appears to be a misfortune, and the remedy for 
it seems to be removal of its natural causes. To consign indi- 
viduals thus constituted and placed, to eternal misery for con- 
duct which is mainly the natural result of their faculties and cir- 
cumstances, appears at variance with benevolence and justice ; 
while to assure them of heaven as the result of a prison-inspired 
repentance and belief, seems to be equally opposed to all sound 
views of a moral government of the world here or hereafter. 

The abuses of the doctrine of heaven and hell appear to me to 
be subversive of all efficacious discipline over the human mind. 
For example. A banker passes a long period of his life in gen- 
teel society, making great professions of evangelical religion, 
and abounding in prayers. At length he is discovered to have 
been all the while robbing his customers, feloniously selling 
their securities, and applying the price to his own uses. By 
this conduct he plunges many honest and industrious families 
into irretrievable ruin, and casts a deep shade of suffering 
over their remaining days. Under the dogmas, the sufferers, in 
their ire, thank God that there is a day of future judgment 
and final retribution, in which canting, hypocritical scoundrels 
who make a cloak of religion to cover their crimes, and who 
embitter the lives of the honest and the good, will receive 
their reward in condemnation to eternal misery. The prospect 
of future punishment is thus believed to exercise a grand pro- 
tecting influence to save society from such catastrophes. But 
let us turn to the prison cell. There the condemned felon 
finds consolation in the dogmas which teach that " the human 
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and 
that he has been left to feel the truth of this representation, and 
to act it out in deeds in order to subdue his obdurate heart and 
bring him into a state of grace. Thanks to the mercy of God, 
he now looks " to the rock that is higher than 1" believes in 
the atonement ; finds all his iniquities forgiven ; the gates of 
heaven thrown open to him, and the angels singing songs of 
joy over the great sinner who has repented ! The dogmas, 



224 



SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE DOGMAS. 



when thus applied, be it observed, not only lead to these in- 
consistent consequences, but blind men's understandings to 
the real order of the Divine Government on earth. I venture 
to say, after forty years' observation and experience, that the 
development of the moral and intellectual organs in individuals 
who are not insane, affords an indication of their natural 
proclivity to dishonesty, or natural strength of virtuous reso- 
lution ; and that while society spurns and neglects this great 
fact in the Divine Government of the world, these substi- 
tutes for it are feeble as gossamer webs, to protect us against 
the crimes of ill-constituted brains placed in unfavourable, 
circumstances. On the other hand, such individuals them- 
selves, if placed in favourable situations in which scope would 
be afforded for all the talents and moral qualities they pos- 
sess, and no strain, in the form of temptation or opportu- 
nity, be applied to overpower their weaker faculties, would 
find this discipline more effective than that now applied, — 
namely, leaving them at liberty, in ignorance of their own 
deficiencies and amidst severe temptations, to follow the 
dictates of their own ill-balanced desires ; restrained only by 
the criminal law on earth, and the prospect of a final judg- 
ment in the world to come. The former, they hope by dex- 
terity to evade ; while they are taught that a condemnatory 
sentence in the latter may at all times be avoided by means 
of repentance and faith. 

But the abuses of this doctrine reach their acme in obstruct- 
ing the social improvement of man. In almost all the king- 
doms of Christendom, the governments have allied themselves 
with the Priesthood to prevent the people from the pursuing 
their own happiness by the development and free exercise 
of their mental faculties. The government of the Pope is 
highly injurious to his subjects. He excludes the study 
of natural science, and of all moral, religious, and politi- 
cal subjects that might by any possibility conflict with the 
dogmas of which he is the fountain, or teach his people to 
scrutinize the uses he makes of his temporal and spiritual 
power. He places works suspected of such tendencies on his 
Index expurgatorius, and prohibits his people, under the peril 
of future condemnation, and also of temporal punishment, from 
reading them. It is the belief in the mass of his subjects that 
he and his church actually hold the keys of heaven and hell 
that gives him his tremendous power ; while it is the con- 
sciousness on his part, that the knowledge of the real order of 
God's government on arth, if attained by his people, would 
blow his dogmas to the winds, and hurl him from his throne, 
that prompts him to repel this information as his most for- 



ABUSE OF SPIRITUAL POWER. 



225 



xmclable enemy. The temporal interests of the subjects of the 
Pope are sacrificed with the most unhesitating alacrity to the 
interests of his spiritual authority, and a degree of physical 
and moral degradation reigns in his territories unexampled m 
the worst parts of Europe. Next to him stands the King of 
Naples, who rules on the same principles, and with the same 
results. Austria follows a similar course. Her Emperor has 
recently concluded a concordat with the Pope, the object of 
which is to place all moral and religious training and social 
action under the trammels of the Priesthood of that country ; 
they are the tools of the secular government, which again seeks 
to maintain its own power and permanency by using them 
as instruments for suppressing moral and intellectual en- 
lightenment, and free thought and action in the people. Nor 
is this abuse of spiritual power confined to Eoman Catholic 
Sovereigns. The King of Prussia is labouring to circumscribe 
the illuminating and improving influence of the public schools 
of his kingdom, established by his more enlightened predeces- 
sors, because their tendency has been to foster the desire for 
political freedom and social improvement. He is doing all 
that lies in his power to diminish the amount of instruction in 
natural science in the schools, and to augment belief in the 
dogmas of the Calvinist sect, there called " Pietism." # 

The clergy of our own country may be divided into two 
classes — men of high moral, religious, and intellectual endow- 
ments, imbued with the pure and benign spirit of Christianity, 
who preach it from the pulpit, and exhibit it in their lives — and 
persons who have chosen the clerical profession from inferior 
motives, and never rise to a full comprehension and experience 
of the sources and nature of its vital power. These latter 
take Catechisms, Confessions, and Liturgies for their rules of 
faith, preach the letter of them, and employ them as ladders 
of ambition, or as engines of war with which to assail other 
sects. It is of this class that I here write. Many of them 
are the determined opponents of the introduction of science 
into schools, while they maintain that the catechism and other 
expositions of the dogmas form the only safe basis for educa- 
tion. It is their influence that prevents the legislature from 
giving pecuniary assistance to schools in which the order of 
Nature is taught as a revelation of the will of God to man, in 
regard to his terrestrial conduct. It is they who lead the peo- 
ple's religious emotions away from the recognition of Nature 
as sacred, and of its Divine laws as worthy of reverence. 
They too have their Index expurgatorius, their list of danger- 
ous books, not to be read without peril to the soul, and displea- 
sure from the pastor. Their object is the same as that of 

p 



226 A LOW MORALITY THE SOURCE OF TYRANNY. 

the Pope, Emperor, and King — to retain the people in sub- 
jection to the spiritual power of which they are the deposita- 
ries on earth ; and it is the promise of heaven and threat of 
hell which enable them to succeed in these unholy and most 
injurious schemes. 

The countries in which political freedom shows its most 
benign influences are those in which the government rests on 
the power of the people, and its administrators are purely secu- 
lar. England, Switzerland, and the United States of North 
America are examples in point. 

Most English Protestant readers will acknowledge the evils 
here described to be true results of Papal ascendency ; but I 
beg to remark that the Pope, Emperors, and Kings, and all 
their clergy, who thus abuse religion, hold the Bible in their 
hands all the while that they are thus perverting it. The 
Bible, therefore, when unsupported by knowledge of the laws 
of God's government on earth, has not proved sufficient to con- 
duct even educated and talented men to a sincere practice of 
its principles. They have so interpreted it as to convert it, — 
by the prospect which it holds forth of future rewards and 
punishments not exclusively for good and bad actions, but for 
belief belief in their dogmas and in their infallibility, or su- 
perior wisdom, as guides to heaven, — into a tremendous instru- 
ment for degrading the people and obstructing their social 
improvement. It appears to me, therefore, in vain, after 
eighteen hundred years' experience of the insufficiency of the 
Bible to protect itself from abuse, when unaided by know- 
ledge of the order of God's providence in nature, to hope to 
prevent men from turning it into an instrument for gratifying 
their own lust of power, to the injury of the world. Some- 
thing obviously is wanted to render it incapable of being 
thus misapplied ; and it is worthy of consideration whether an 
interpretation of it in harmony with nature may have this 
effect. 

The way in which the dogmas act in supporting despotism 
is not generally understood. By excluding secular knowledge 
they render men timid and incapable as children. 

Tyranny, for example, is the direct result of a low moral and 
intellectual condition of the people. A kingly tyrant has the 
strength only of one man, and cannot imprison and torture 
his liberal subjects by his personal strength. He is served by 
ministers whose moral condition is so low that they voluntarily 
lend him their aid in wickedness for the sake of honours and 
pay. They, however, do not personally execute his decrees. 
They find police-officers whose morality is such, that for pay 
they voluntarily arrest, imprison, chain, and degrade whom- 



MORALITY THE BASIS OF SOCIAL WELLBEING. 227 

soever the king and cabinet desire them so to treat. Even 
these men are not sufficient to do these disgraceful deeds with 
their unaided strength. Officers and soldiers are found so des- 
titute of patriotism and all high principle, that they lend them 
the aid of their physical force and discipline to support and 
protect them in the exercise of their odious vocation. The 
kingly power thus obviously rests on the low moral con- 
dition of the subjects. Why cannot Queen Victoria order a 
liberal to be imprisoned and chained ? Because the moral and 
intellectual condition of her people is such, that if she had the 
inclination (which we know is the reverse of the fact), her 
subjects would not lend her their moral and physical power to 
gratify malignant propensities. No officer of the law would 
voluntarily execute her warrant without the signature of a se- 
cretary of state ; and no secretary would, to gratify her, risk 
his neck by impeachment, and encounter a fearful storm of 
public indignation ancf resistance by subscribing such a docu- 
ment ; — hence tyranny, like that recently ascribed to the King 
of Naples, is morally impossible in England. But the cause 
why it is so, lies in the moral and intellectual condition of the 
people. The United States of North America, and Switzerland, 
afford similar examples. Let the President of the one, or the 
federal chief officer of the other, issue warrants of his own au- 
thority to apprehend, and, without trial, to imprison, chain, and 
torment any citizen of these countries for political offences, and 
let him even find a secretary of state to countersign them, the 
moral energy of the people would hurl both tyrants and secre- 
taries to destruction. 

The Divine law, therefore, is, that social well-being is the 
direct result of wide-spread individual intelligence, morality 
and religion reduced to practice, and it has no other sub- 
stantial basis. The dogmas, by holding out Heaven as the re- 
ward to despots for maintaining the true faith, and through it, 
social order ; and by giving the people the solace of revenge in 
their sufferings, by the thought that there is a day of future 
retribution awaiting their oppressors ; distract the minds of 
both parties from perceiving the fundamental truth that 
knowledge of, and conformity to, God's laws in nature, 
afford the only secure basis for individual and social pros- 
perity; that these laws are moral and may be rendered 
religious by training ; and that, if honestly acted on, they 
will conduct both kings and subjects to the highest state 
of improvement attainable on earth. Nature, however, will 
proceed in her course whether we ignore, or study and 
reverence her ways. The only difference will be in our 

p2 



228 



DOGMATIC PREACHING. 



course of action. If we regard the principles advocated in this 
work as having any pretensions to truth, we shall reform our 
religious creeds, our criminal laws, and our treatment of all 
individuals who labour under cerebral deficiency; and apply 
the true principles of the moral government of the world to the 
regulation of individual and social conduct. If we regard them 
as false, we shall adhere to our present opinions and line of 
action. In religion, we shall continue to view the order of 
God's providence in relation to mankind in general, in the light 
in which it is represented in the dogmas, and which continues 
to be earnestly inculcated by men of great talent and influence ; 
of which the following extract from an exposition of the Book 
of Genesis, by Dr Candlish, is an example. He has been speak- 
ing of the fate of Sodom, and, referring to Luke xvii. 28-30, 
he continues : — 

" What will all their vain expedients for dissipating thought 
and pacifying conscience avail the unjust then ? They have 
lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton ; they have 
nourished their hearts as in a day of slaughter. They have 
been reserved unto that day; shut up, so that none could 
escape. 

" Thus viewed, what a spectacle does the world, lying in 
wickedness, present ! A pen, in which sheep are making 
themselves fat for slaughter ; a place of confinement ; a con- 
demned cell, in which sentenced prisoners are shut up; sinners 
held fast in the hands of an angry God ! 

" Yes, you may run and riot as you choose; you may drown 
thought in drunkenness, and lull conscience asleep ; hand may 
join in hand, and you may say, one to another, — a confederacy 
— let us shake off superstitious fear — let us dispel gloomy fore- 
bodings — let us eat, drink, and be merry. You may struggle 
as you can, and strive to get rid of God ; but here you are in 
his keeping — under lock and key. He has you safe, reserved 
unto the day of judgment ; and you cannot escape — no, not 
though you call on the rocks and mountains to fall on you, and 
cover you from the wrath of the Lamb. 

" Have you no knowledge, ye workers of iniquity? no con- 
sideration, no sense or feeling ? What hollow mockery of 
laughter is that which rings through the vaults of the dungeon ? 
Prisoners at their sports ! men doomed to die, taking their 
ease, and making merry ! What infatuation, what madness is 
this ! Will none of you be sober for a moment ? Will none 
of you — inclosed, shut in, reserved as you are for judgment, so 
that you cannot escape — will none of you, ere the fatal day 
dawns, and its sun rises on the earth, pause, and be persuaded 



INFLUENCE OF FEAR OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 



229 



to relent, to submit, to sue out the freely-offered pardon, to 
belie-ve and be saved, — saved now, — saved in that day, — saved 
for ever?"— (Pages 95-96.) 

To an individual who regards human transgressions as having 
their origin in abuses of the functions of the brain which may 
best be prevented by restraint, instruction, and training, such 
sentiments as the foregoing appear more like the emanations 
of a fervid Destructiveness in the preacher, than as oracles of 
divine wisdom. The spirit of them contrasts strongly with the 
prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." The governments of Europe rely on such teaching as the 
sheet-anchor of social order, and prevent higher and more 
efficacious natural means from being applied to improve our 
habits and to preserve the people from crime. Yet it is a 
fact that these doctrines rarely reach the class of offenders 
whom they are designed to terrify, for they do not generally fre- 
quent churches, and least of all churches in which such doc- 
trines as these are preached; and if they did, the denunciations 
would fall powerless on their defective brains. An example 
of the incapacity of very inferior brains, even when under sen- 
tence of death, to comprehend or feel the terrors of eternity, 
may be read in the Transactions of the Phrenological Society, 
p. 370. The statement there given rests on the authority of 
the late Kev. Dr Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh. On the 
other hand, criminals having large brains, with deficient 
moral and religious organs, such as the Mannings, set them 
at defiance. 

In future times, when society shall recognise the true causes 
and preventives of criminal action,* in all classes of men, they 
will discover that the denunciations and promises of the dog- 
mas are slender and inefficacious substitutes for the true means 
of dealing with evil which God has presented to them in nature, 
but from the use of which these erroneous opinions at present 
induce them to shrink with aversion. This doctrine does not 
affect the distinction between right and wrong. 

Farther, the life and immortality which Christianity, as 
generally interpreted, has brought to light, is the eternal en- 
joyment of the few, and the endless misery of the many. 
If Natural religion throws us exclusively on the bounty of 
God for our hopes of a future life, it delivers us from the hor- 
rors of hell ; for no traces of hell or the devil are to be found 
in Nature. The Divine practice in Nature is to bring suffer- 

* See Criminal Jurisprudence considered in relation to the Physiology of the Brain, 
by Marinaduke B. Sampson. 3d Edition, revised. London, Highley and Son. Price 2d. ; 
—Lectures on Moral Philosophy, by George Combe, Lectures XII., XIII., XIV. ;— and 
" The Principles of Criminal Legislation and the Practice of Prison Discipline Investi- 
gated, 1 ' by Geo. Combe. 



230 



CONVENTIONAL HYPOCRISY. 



ing to a close, after all possibility of its benefiting the sufferer 
ceases. And this is no small advantage, for, as already men- 
tioned, while the fear of hell does not appal men with a low 
development of brain, I know from confidential communica- 
tions with many persons, that when the organs of Causality, 
Comparison, Cautiousness, Conscientiousness, and Benevo- 
lence are large, and those of Hope, Wonder, and Self-Esteem, 
are only moderately developed ; and still more when these 
are deficient, and when the temperament is nervous and 
bilious ; there is a constant trouble in the mind in conse- 
quence of the uncertainty of salvation. The individual can- 
not feel secure that if any are to be passed over to the left 
hand in the day of judgment, he shall belong to the favoured 
class on the right. On the contrary, when the temperament 
is sanguine, and the organs of Cautiousness and Conscientious- 
ness are small, and those of Self-Esteem, Veneration, Hope, and 
Wonder, are large, the self-complacent possessor never enter- 
tains a doubt that he will be found among the faithful, and 
enjoy eternal felicity in heaven. The prospect of future reward 
and punishment exercises a restraining effect chiefly on indi- 
viduals in whom the three regions of the brain, animal, moral, 
and intellectual, are pretty equally developed. 

The prevalent interpretation of the doctrine of heaven and 
hell, if not supported by nature, must be fraught with tremen- 
dous evils to mankind. It is the grand instrument by means 
of which the clergy hold sway over the laity, and have acquired 
a temporal power which enables them in many instances to 
control or embarrass the legislature ; — to substitute their own 
interpretations not only for the Bible itself, but for the order 
of Nature, in the instruction of the people ; — and to prevent the 
public mind from entering honestly and independently into the 
consideration of many departments of natural science, and from 
drawing unbiassed conclusions from them. A writer in the 
Edinburgh Review, after making some observations on con- 
ventional hypocrisy, proceeds as follows : — " Then there are 
the deliberate dishonesties of the learned, imposing upon the 
people what they do not believe themselves, for the sake of 
the end it is supposed to answer. Sir Charles Lyell [in his 
Second Visit to the United States of North America,Yol. i. p. 222] 
adduces at length the text of the three heavenly witnesses, 
which no scholar, since Porson s investigation of it, professes 
to believe genuine, but which is still nevertheless retained in 
our Bibles, and also in those of the Episcopal Church of Ame- 
rica, notwithstanding their opportunity of expunging it when 
the American Episcopalians revised the liturgy and struck out 
the Athanasian creed. This disingenuous timidity has long 



CONVENTIONAL HYPOCKISY. 



231 



been a reflection upon all our religious teachers. It is now 
becoming extremely dangerous to their influence and authority. 
There is no meeting an age of inquiry except in the spirit of 
perfect candour. The question which lies at the root of all 
dogmatic Christianity, is the authority of the letter of Scrip- 
ture ; yet, strange to say, that question is neither a settled nor 
an open one even among Protestants. All the clergy of almost 
all sects are afraid of it ; and the students of Nature, intent 
only upon facts that God has revealed to our senses, have to 
fight their way against the self-same religious prejudice which 
consigned Galileo to his dungeon. The geologists, following 
in the track of the astronomers, have made good some very 
important positions, and number among them many eminent 
churchmen of unquestioned fidelity to their ordination vows. 
It is now, therefore, admitted that the text is not conclusive 
against physical demonstration. Is the text conclusive against 
moral induction and metapl^sical inquiry ? Let a layman 
put that question, and an awful silence is the least forbidding 
answer he will receive. No minister of a parish, no master of 
a school, no father of a family in England feels himself free to 
pursue any train of instruction that seems in conflict with a 
familiar text or a dogmatic formula, excepting only the sub- 
ject of the opening verses of Genesis. lie is either fearful of 
the ground himself, or he cannot clear his own path for others 
without opening a discussion, which is discountenanced on all 
sides and branded with reproachful names. He, in. spite of 
himself, must take refuge in evasions and reserve, and close a 
subject of perhaps the liveliest interest to the most reverential 
minds, lest the works of God should seem to be at variance with 
His word. Here is the dilemma which will be found at the bot- 
tom of the education question in England. This is what is 
consciously or unconsciouslymeant in many important quarters, 
by the cry against secular instruction. This is why the natural 
sciences were so long frowned upon in our grammar schools 
and colleges, and ancient knowledge preferred to modern as 
sounder and a holier lore. The theology of the Y atican was at 
home among the Pagan mythologies, the Aristotelian physics, 
and the Hebrew cosmogonies; yet stood in awe of ' the Tuscan 
artist's optic glass and the spirit of the ancient Church has 
ever since been true to that instinct. But Protestantism, we 
say again, and printing, have admitted the light of nature into 
the schools ; and, in the unlimited ecclesiastical freedom of the 
United States, religion and education go hand in hand." 

Few persons conversant with the state of religious opinion 
in Great Britain will question the correctness of this represen- 
tation ; especially of that part of it which follows the question, 



232 



CONVICTION AND BELIEF. 



" Is the text conclusive against moral induction and metaphy- 
sical inquiry ?" Let us look, then, into the cause of this hu- 
miliating and injurious condition of things. 

There is a distinction between " conviction" and " belief." 
To " convince" a person, is to lead his intellect by evidence and 
logical induction to acknowledge a truth previously unknown, 
or to admit a contested proposition. By teaching him Astro- 
nomy, we may convince him of the rotation and revolution of 
the globe. By shewing him the facts of Geology, and the logi- 
cal deductions from them, we may convince him that the earth 
has existed for a longer period than six thousand years ; and 
so forth. In these and similar instances, we present facts to 
the observing faculties, and employ the reflecting powers to 
judge of them ; and as, when the organs of these faculties are 
normally developed, active, and cultivated, they act with pre- 
cision and uniformity, the results which they reach are not vo- 
luntary, but the natural consequences of their action. In other 
words, conviction depends on evidence presented to the obser- 
ving and intellectual faculties, and is involuntary. 

On the other hand, there are two sources of " belief." By 
the constitution of our minds, we believe, intuitively, in the 
existence and qualities of certain things, when they are pre- 
sented to our observation (see pages 54, 55). And we " believe" 
also on credit or persuasion. To " believe" is to " credit upon 
the authority of another ;" to " put confidence in the veracity 
of any one ;" to " have a firm persuasion of any thing." In at- 
taining this kind of belief, the intellect does not come directly 
into contact with the thing believed, but reaches it through 
the medium of testimony. The tendency to credit testimony 
depends primarily on the emotional faculties. A person en- 
dowed with a large organ of Wonder feels pleasure in believing 
in marvellous incidents and narratives ; one endowed with 
large organs of Hope and small organs of Cautiousness, is pre- 
disposed to believe in a happy state, here or hereafter ; one 
possessing large organs of Cautiousness combined with defi- 
cient organs of Hope, is constitutionally prone to believe in a 
disastrous future. In these instances, the emotional faculties 
appear to lead the intellect to embrace whatever views are 
most consonant to their likings, and to believe in them. Thus, 
we had believers in witchcraft ; and now we see many be- 
lievers in ghosts, clairvoyance, spirit-rapping, and other mys- 
terious phenomena. The causes of these phenomena are 
not cognisable by the intellectual faculties; and hence, in com- 
mon language, we call those who embrace them, "believers" 
in them. Among the definitions of " belief" given by Dr John- 
son is this : " The theological virtue of faith ; firm confidence 



CONVICTION AND BELIEF. 



233 



of the truths of religion." But in Chap. II., p. 15, I have 
endeavoured to shew that " belief" may he formed by asso- 
ciating, in childhood, almost any form of religious doctrines 
or opinions with the emotional faculties of Veneration and 
Wonder (see Appendix, No. III.) ; and that this process is ac- 
tually carried on with great success, by the priests of many 
religions acknowledged by us to be false. The rise and esta- 
blishment of Mormonism, in our oavu day, is an example in 
point. 

Keeping this distinction in view, let us next remark that the 
rigid dogmatists of nearly every Christian sect attach the stu- 
pendous reward of heaven to " belief," and the awful punish- 
ment of hell, not to conviction, but to " unbelief," in man-con- 
cocted articles of faith. (See Appendix, No. IY.) The 
promise of heaven is a lure to all the animal, moral, and 
religious faculties, while the - threat of hell is an appalling 
appeal to our selfish feelings.- They are, therefore, engines 
of tremendous power for forming and maintaining belief. I 
have used the expression " man-concocted articles," because 
history tells us that the Koman Catholic, and the Protes- 
tant, and almost all other sectarian articles of faith, were 
drawn up by councils or assemblies of fallible men, who in- 
terpreted Scripture with their human faculties, and with 
such human lights as their own ages afforded, which we 
know were scanty enough, compared with the duty they had 
upon hand, viz., to fix the articles which they themselves and 
all their posterity should believe as their passport to heaven 
and protection from hell. Not only so, but we know that 
many of these articles were the subjects of vehement dispute 
among the members of these councils and assemblies, and 
that several of them were admitted into the code of Divine 
truths by narrow majorities ! Nevertheless, it is to belief in ar- 
ticles of faith thus enacted, that strict dogmatists of every 
sect assign heaven, and to unbelief in them, hell ! The Pro- 
testants may be heard vehemently denouncing the Koman 
Catholic faith as "soul-destroying error," while the Pope pro- 
hibits, under the severest penalties, every one from teaching 
his subjects Protestant Christianity, and for the same reason. 
In his opinion, it is " soul-destroying error." Moreover, every 
sect, when it sends forth its missionaries to convert the heathen, 
gives them a commission to teach its own doctrines as "the 
only certain wa}^ of salvation." 

Few sects assign salvation to those who conscientiously study 
the Scriptures and interpret and believe them as their own un- 
biassed understandings dictate, whether the results be orthodox 
or not ; and fewer of them still, allow an entrance into heaven 



234 



BELIEF. 



to conscientious men who cannot believe in any recognised 
form of Christianity ! The Protestants profess to grant freedom 
of inquiry ; but how, if they sincerely did so, could they con- 
sistently proclaim the conscientious interpretations of any hu- 
man being to be " soul-destroying errors ?" When we contem- 
plate a body of intelligent men, who are cognisant not only of 
these facts, but of the great difficulties attending the questions 
of the authenticity and inspiration of the books of the Old and 
New Testaments, and of the inroads which science is making 
on the established interpretations of them* — I say, when we 
contemplate men in such circumstances, day by day, and with 
unhesitating confidence threatening hell as the punishment of 
unbelief, and promising heaven as the reward of belief in their 
own peculiar doctrines, we are astounded at their boldness, and 
thrown back upon a variety of hypotheses to account for the 
spectacle. These threats and promises, too, be it observed, are 
publicly addressed to many laymen who are perfectly cognisant 
of all that is here stated. If the clergy could only hear the 
comments which such hearers make on their discourses, they 
would pause in their career. Some individuals may be heard 
remarking that the preacher is only discharging a professional 
duty, like a lawyer pleading a cause ; and that his own convic- 
tions going beyond the narrow boundaries of his creed, he has 
no liberty of independent thought and action, and where there 
is no freedom there can be no responsibility. But what an ap- 
palling supposition, to imagine a human being, who believes in 
a God at all, consciously investing doctrines with Divine 
authority, and enforcing belief in them on others by means of 
heaven and hell, merely as a professional exercise, regardless 
alike of their human origin, and of the uncertainty which he 
knows to exist as to their absolute truth ! Another supposition, 
frequently hazarded, is, that the preacher employs these porten- 
tous engines of belief from habit, without much considera- 
tion of their import. This I can readily admit, for few men 
could indulge in proclamations of eternal misery if they formed 
an adequate conception of all that it implies. During the French 

F * Astronomy lias overturned the belief of educated men in Joshua's commanding the 
Sun and Moon to stand still, and in God's fearing that men should reach heaven by build- 
ing a high tower, the tower of Babel. Geology has shaken the credibility of the Hebrew 
account of the creation and also of the Deluge. Natural history has demonstrated that 
the Ark could not contain all the animals of the world ; for many of them did not exist 
in the region where Noah embarked, and others could not live in an Ark. These sciences, 
combined with Physiology, have shaken the doctrine that death was introduced in conse- 
quence of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. And Phrenology, by establish- 
ing the fact that ill-formed brains, placed in unfavourable circumstances, are the grand 
sources of vice, crime, and misery ; while favourably constituted brains, placed in opposite 
circumsiances, are the natural fountains of virtue, and of individual and social happi- 
ness ; militates against the belief that the doctrines of the dogmas are logically related to 
these causes of good and bad conduct on earth. 



BELIEF. 



235 



war, a near relation of mine happened to go with a friend in- 
to Edinburgh Castle on some business, when they observed a 
regiment forming in a circle within the walls. They stopped 
to see what the movement meant. It was preparatory to a 
military punishment. The two civilians were led, by an irre- 
sistible curiosity, to watch the subsequent proceedings. It 
happened that, before this occurred, my relative had frequently 
discussed the subject of the eternity of future punishment with 
his friend, who maintained sternly the orthodox opinions on 
this point. They saw the culprit tied up ; the lashing com- 
menced ; the blood flowed, and they heard acute cries of agony. 
They became sick, and left the scene in disgust. As they re- 
tired, my relative said to his friend, " What amount of sin, in 
your opinion, would justify that infliction continued through 
eternity ?" The reply was, " Good God ! no human being 
could, in a whole lifetime, incur guilt that would justify that 
torture for a week \" This individual never afterwards believed 
in the eternity of hell torments. He had here the means of 
comprehending what human torture really is, and his whole 
being revolted from the idea of its endless duration. Previously, 
hell was to him little more than a word, but now he could form 
some definite notion of the horrors implied in it. 

The grand cause, however, of the prevalent use of future re- 
ward and punishment to support belief in man-concocted arti- 
cles of faith, appears to me to be this. By laying down the 
corruption of human nature as a fundamental proposition in 
religion, and founding on it the doctrine of man's natural aver- 
sion to holiness and virtue, and his natural incapacity to dis- 
cern Divine truth, the dogmatists deprive themselves of a secure 
resting-place in science and in human nature for religion and 
morality. Some time ago, I heard a sermon preached by an 
able divine, on the text, " Thou shaltlove thy neighbour as thy- 
self." In answer to the inquiry, How shall we be able to love 
our neighbours as ourselves ? he said that the philosophers pre- 
sent us only with motives of prudence or selfishness, which can 
never produce disinterested goodness ; and that the only means 
of becoming capable of fulfilling the precept, is to obtain the in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, in answer to prayer. " Ask and it 
shall be given to you." The Holy Spirit alone, said he, can 
plant in the human mind true Christian charity and brotherly 
love : secondary means may cultivate it after it is so planted, 
but can do nothing to produce it. — But I ask, If God instituted 
the world, and endowed man with all his functions, may we not 
truly say that all our gifts proceed from Him, and that second- 
ary means can only cultivate, improve, and direct them ? Far- 
ther — If the feeling of pure disinterested goodness, prompting 



236 



BELIEF. 



us to love our neighbour as ourselves for the sake of making 
him happy, without any selfish object of our own, is communi- 
cated to us, when a large and active organ of Benevolence is be- 
stowed on us, is not this an example of God's grace producing 
the emotion in a way which those misinterpreters of Scripture 
and repudiators of nature erroneously deny ? 

According to the doctrine now referred to, all religious at- 
tainments and hopes rest on belief in doctrines of which the 
clergy are virtually the interpreters. The original records are 
not directly accessible to the laity, and hence it is impos- 
sible for them, generally speaking, to reach conviction in 
regard to the basis on which morality, religion, and salva- 
tion, are said to rest. Beliefs therefore, is the only alterna- 
tive left to them ; and belief being, in the dogmatical view, 
indispensable to salvation, and salvation being transcendently 
important, some of the clergy act as if they thought all ap- 
pliances to produce belief justifiable. If any inquirer desires 
to reach conviction rather than to rest satisfied with belief] 
he is not referred to nature and to legitimate inductions from 
it, but to books written in dead languages, and to volumes 
of disputation concerning the authors of these books, the ge- 
nuineness of the text, the degree in which the text is inspired, 
and, finally, the soundness of discordant interpretations of it, 
on belief in which salvation is said to depend. On all these 
points, the difficulties are increasing instead of diminishing 
with the advances of scholarship and science.* If personal 
and social wellbeing depend on the fulfilment of natural con- 
ditions instituted by God, then no religion resting exclusively 
on belief in dogmas which ignore these conditions, can be 
thoroughly practical. Moreover, I have attempted to shew that 
the order of the Divine administration of this world is unfolded 
to man by means of the instruments through which it is con- 
ducted ; that it is addressed equally to the intellectual as to the 
emotional faculties ; and that, therefore, before a religion of 
conviction, — i.e., a religion based on discernible manifestations 
of Divine wisdom, goodness, and power, cognisable by the in- 
tellect, gratifying to the moral and religious emotions, and con- 
ducing, practically, to the wellbeing of the race, — can be at- 
tained, we must resort to the records of these manifestations 
in the book of Nature, and from them extract elements for the 
formation of our faith, 

In every religion, we shall find, that, in proportion to the 

* See " An Inquiry concerning the origin of Christianity" by C. HENNELL. Second Edi- 
tion. " The Creed of Christendom," by W. Rathbone Greg. " The Essence of Christianity," 
by Ludwig Feuerbach, 1854. Prize Essay, — " Christianity and Infidelity" by S. S. HEN- 
nell. London : Hall, Virtue, and Co., 1857. 



THE CLERGY A SEPARATE CLASS. 



237 



importance attached to pure belief, is the extent of superstition 
in its followers, and of domination in its clergy. The Hindoo, 
Mahometan, Eoman Catholic, and Protestant religions, may be 
selected as examples. The priests of the first and second exact 
belief without a shadow of free investigation, and their flocks 
are their blind fanatical puppets, and also the recipients of 
every degrading superstition they choose to teach them. The 
Eoman Catholic priesthood, also, require unreasoning belief, 
and their power is proportionally great, and their peculiar doc- 
trines proportionally distant from reason. The Protestant laity 
are nominally allowed freedom of inquiry, and in proportion to 
the use they have made of this privilege is their religion ra- 
tional, and their subjection to clerical dominion mitigated. It 
is necessary only to refer to the sects which have renounced the 
most appalling of the dogmas cited on pages 186-7, as contain- 
ing the most independent thinkers, and least priest-ridden por- 
tion of the Christian laity. The clergy of those sects having 
lost their priestly power, appeal to reason, and to man's moral 
and religious emotions, as the means of guiding their flocks : 
They substitute conviction for belief, a certain mode of training 
the laity to mental independence ; and to become the sincere 
friends of human progress. 

The practice of founding religion on dogmas which cannot 
bear the investigation of reason, is attended with another great 
evil. It is the cause why the Christian clergy, like the Le- 
vites among the Jews, and the Priests in idolatrous countries, 
constitute a class apart from the laity. The Scotch advocate 
formerly mentioned, who had been educated as a clergyman in 
the Church of Scotland, but subsequently embraced the legal 
profession, mentioned to me that so completely are the clergy 
a separate class, that were two of them, one from John-o- 
Groat's House, and another from Gretna Green, to meet for the 
first time in their lives, even in an inn, they would in a short 
time enter upon an interchange of opinions upon religion and 
church government, and church politics, far more confidential 
than either of them would venture to indulge in with his own 
lay father or brother. The same reserve infects the laity in 
their communications with their spiritual guides. When I 
visited Boston in the United States of North America, I hap- 
pened to mention to the Eev. Dr Channing some opinions 
which I had heard discussed the previous day at a dinner party 
consisting of lawyers, physicians, and merchants ; when he 
observed, " This is very interesting to me. But for you, a 
stranger, I should never have learned that such views are enter- 
tained ; and yet it is of great importance to clergymen to know 
the real sentiments of the laity on religious doctrines. I have 



238 



DUTY OF THE LAITY. 



often told my lay friends that I desire nothing more ardently 
than to hear their trne convictions ; and I have assured them 
that whatever these may be, if I am satisfied that they are hon- 
estly entertained, the holders of them shall not forfeit my es- 
teem. But," he added, " it has been all in vain. They fear to 
hurt my feelings by contesting my opinions : they erect a bar- 
rier of good breeding between themselves and their clergy, 
which no skill of mine has been able to break through." 

This is a grave charge against the laity, and, in my opi- 
nion, it is well-founded. By concealing their real opinions 
concerning the doctrines and worship sanctioned by the stand- 
ards of their churches, they render it impossible for the most 
upright and enlightened members of the clerical profession to 
move a step towards reformation. ISTo clergyman can proclaim 
doubts in the soundness of the dogmas which, probably in the 
immaturity of his understanding and absence of experience, 
he has vowed to preach, while the laity continue ostensibly 
to uphold them. The movement towards reformation must 
commence with the laity. By expressing openly and honestly 
their dissatisfaction with things as they stand, they will afford 
the clergy, many of whom are groaning in creed-imposed fetters, 
encouragement and opportunity to declare whatever changes 
the increase of learning and the evolution of scientific truths 
may have produced in their convictions. The laity act an 
unmanly and dishonourable part, in secretly condemning what 
they publicly support. 

How strongly do such cases indicate unsoundness in the 
creeds which lead to such reserve ; yet it arises exclusively 
from the dogmatic elements introduced into our religion. As 
before mentioned, Christian theology is to the laity an occult 
science, resting on interpretations of Hebrew and Greek re- 
cords ; and belief in certain doctrines is the foundation of all 
their hopes. There is no common ground, therefore, on which 
the ordinary layman and his pastor can meet to discuss the 
merits of their faith. It stands apart from nature and secular 
experience ; unbelief and misbelief involve eternal perdition ; 
and there is thus no alternative left to the layman but to sur- 
render his conscience and understanding to his spiritual master, 
or encounter (as he thinks) the risk of losing his soul. The 
Pope and his clergy proclaim this as the natural result of their 
faith, and they act consistently in doing so. The Protestant 
clergy, on the other hand, de facto exercise the same authority 
over the unlearned laity, while they profess to acknowledge 
the right of individual judgment. 

These considerations are urged with no hostile design against 
religion. Theyare presentedwith an earnest desire to strengthen 



SERMONS. 



239 



its foundations and extend its usefulness. The Edinburgh 
Keview for October 1840 expresses wonder that there should 
be so small a proportion of sermons destined to live ; that, out 
of the million and upwards preached annually throughout the 
empire there should be a very few that are remembered three 
whole days after they are delivered, — fewer still that are com- 
mitted to the press, scarcely one that is not in a few years ab- 
solutely forgotten. One explanation may be given of these 
facts. As the sermons are preached by the best educated men 
in the country, and by men of at least average abilities, the sub- 
jects of them must be such that they do not stand in a natural 
relation to the human faculties, and therefore, even when sup- 
ported by the religious emotions, do not permanently interest or 
edify their hearers. How then, it maybe asked, do the sermons 
continue to be listened to, with even the appearance of devotion? 
The answer is, the dogmas having been entwined with the re- 
ligious emotions of the people from infancy, are regarded as 
divine truths, and by repeating them, the preachers excite the 
emotions, and thus listening becomes an act of divine worship. 
But in this monotonous practice there is no progress towards 
a higher development of human intelligence, virtue, and hap- 
piness. In consequence, the Christian religion, as now inter- 
preted, actually stands still ; nay, it is the boast of the adhe- 
rents of the dogmas that it must necessarily do so, until it shall 
bring all opinions under its sway. But this standing still in 
the midst of a host of assailants striving, and not altogether 
without success, to undermine its very foundations, — and of a 
rapidly-advancing stream of scientific knowledge at variance 
with its dogmas, cannot fail to sap its strength. In page 66 it 
is stated that when the intellectual faculties furnish the emo- 
tional faculties of Wonder and Yeneration with knowledge of 
the qualities and phenomena of Nature, the two sets of faculties 
acting together generate an intuitive belief in the existence of 
a supernatural power and intelligence. We can give no account 
of the origin of this belief, except that the faculties of normal 
men are so constituted in relation to Nature that it excites it in 
them. But we learn by observation, that where knowledge of 
Nature is so deficient that the mind cannot comprehend the 
order and lessons of nature, the religious emotions, in seeking 
for the supernatural, are liable to go astray into gross supersti- 
tions, and that the intellect then invents idols, demons, witches, 
and other monstrous objects or imaginary beings to which the 
emotions cling. The supernatural, therefore, in one form or 
other, appears to be indispensable to their satisfaction. Ac- 
cordingly, we find that the founders of the Hindoo and Ma- 
hometan religions, based them on alleged supernatural com- 



240 



THE HINDOO RELIGION. 



munications. Belief in their sacred books was not produced by 
reason and evidence, but by the aid of authority, the promise of 
reward and threat of punishment. The assurance of a Divine 
origin was accepted by the people, because, in the actual con- 
dition of their intelligence, it satisfied their love of the super- 
natural. Being communicated to the young, from generation 
to generation, and supported by public opinion and many social 
advantages, these religions have had an abiding endurance. 

Both natural and communicated religions, therefore, appear 
to rest on the basis of the supernatural, real or pretended ; for 
although it may appear paradoxical, it seems nevertheless 
true, that it is the intuitive belief that all the qualities and 
phenomena of Nature manifest a Supernatural Power that fits 
the rules which they reveal for human guidance, to become 
religious laws. If this view be sound, religious belief founded 
on the objects and phenomena of Nature cannot be shaken, 
because these objects and phenomena are constantly present as 
sources of conviction, and the human faculties are all adapted 
to receive as Divine the lessons logically deducible from them. 

The Hindoo religion does not possess this quality of stability, 
and hence it requires and has received support from external 
motives ; and these are unscrupulously applied. (See p. 47.) 
In consequence of this weakness, it is in constant danger of 
being subverted by the revelations of Divine Truth in Nature ; 
but much less so, by another communicated Faith, however 
much superior it may be to itself. When the Bible is presented 
to its votaries, they examine it with their intellects alone, and 
in general it does not appear to them to possess the character of 
a Divine message. Their minds are preoccupied by their own su- 
pernatural communications. These not having been embraced 
from reason, but from authority and training, and being supported 
only by the authority of their Priests, by the law, and by public 
opinion, Christianity has not yet succeeded in extinguishing 
this faith and taking its place. Ida Pffeifer informs us that the 
Christian villages or communities in India are composed of 
orphan children left utterly destitute by visitations of the 
cholera, who were collected and clothed, fed, educated, and 
trained by Christian Missionaries ; in other words, training 
has made them Christians as it had made their Fathers Hin- 
doos. But generally speaking, the Hindoo people, satisfied 
with their own religion, continue to reject the religion of their 
conquerors. The missionaries find it extremely difficult to 
undo the connection formed in their minds between the doc- 
trines of that faith and their religious emotions. The Bev. Dr 
Duff, a missionary from the Church of Scotland to Bengal, 
perceived the obstacles to his success presented by this state 



THE HINDOO RELIGION. 



241 



of things, and begged of the Church to send him the means of 
instructing the Hindoos in Natural Science, in order to pre- 
pare them to receive Christianity. In his pamphlet, entitled 
The Church of Scotland's Indian Mission, p. 3 (Edinburgh, 
1835), he says of the Hindoos, that with them the argument 
for Christianity from miracles is utterly powerless. " They 
retort, that they themselves have miracles far more stupen- 
dous. And doubtless if mere gross magnitude is considered, 
they say what is true ; for in this respect their miracles set all 
comparison at defiance. Besides, with them the original mi- 
racles form an inherent part of their theology ; and they have 
no notion of what is meant by an appeal to them, in order 
to authenticate a doctrine. And modem miracles they have 
in such abundance, that they are exhibited on the most trivial 
occasions, and become matters of daily occurrence/' 

The means of teaching Natural Science have been supplied 
in Bengal, and have been largely taken advantage of by intel- 
ligent young Hindoos ; but, according to my information, they 
apply the knowledge thus acquired to refute the Bible. Be it 
observed that the missionaries and Christian laymen who have 
taught them Natural Science have abstained from investing it 
with a sacred character ; have not represented it as revealing 
rules of practical conduct which are directly related to the 
moral and religious faculties of man, and, therefore, calculated 
by teaching and training to become moral and religious 
truths. The consequence is the production of unbelief in 
all religions. Surely natural religion would be less dangerous 
than none. 

The Greeks and Komans had no written records professing 
to proceed directly from their gods. Their religion was tra- 
ditionary, and rested on physical representations of their dei- 
ties in statuary, and on temples, rites, and ceremonies. We 
have seen how obstinately Christianity is resisted by the Hin- 
doos in consequence of the preoccupation of their religious 
emotions by a religion which they believe to have proceeded 
from a supernatural source. When the Christian religion was 
presented to the Greeks and Romans it did not meet with any 
obstacle of this kind, for they had no divine records. Its suc- 
cess among them was, therefore, proportionately easy and great; 
and it spread also among all those nations whose brains were 
well formed, and who had no previous sacred books to preoc- 
cupy them. Among most of the tribes of the native American 
Indians it failed, apparently because their cerebral organs were 
so defective that they could not comprehend it. 

These facts appear to shew that it is much more difficult to 
subvert a religion alleged to rest on a supernatural basis, than 

Q 



242 



LEGISLATION. 



to infuse a new faith, claiming such an origin, into minds not 
preoccupied by belief in supernatural communications.'. Might 
not a religion, founded on the rules of belief and conduct re- 
vealed to us by God in the agencies and phenomena of nature, 
aid us in rooting out superstitions which we find it so difficult 
to exterminate merely by presenting another supernatural re- 
velation, however superior in truth and practical utility? If 
the missionaries would teach the dictates of science for 
human guidance, as religious as well as intellectual truths, 
to the Hindoos, they might bring them at least nearer to 
Christianity. 

In Legislation, also, the obstructive effects of the Dogmas 
may be observed. If this world is an Institution, it follows 
that personal and social prosperity can be reached only by 
studying the agencies of Nature, and conforming to the rules 
of conduct which they prescribe. In this view, the function 
of the human legislator is simply to discover and apply the 
rules of action dictated by the Divine Lawgiver. In my opi- 
nion, science has already made such progress that valuable 
rules have been demonstrated, conformity to which will aid us 
in securing healthy . constitutions at birth, and preserving them 
unimpaired by disease throughout life ; also in the production 
and distribution of wealth ; in the elevation and refinement of 
our mental faculties; in the attainment of social distinction and 
other objects of legitimate ambition; in short, in the improve- 
ment of our minds and bodies, and the augmentation of our 
happiness, as individuals; and more emphatically still, in reach- 
ing national prosperity. No human legislature can produce 
any beneficial results, private or public, except by acting in 
conformity with the order of nature ; while it may, and often 
does, call forth floods of suffering and disappointment by en- 
acting and enforcing laws in opposition to it. Yet the mere 
suggestion of such an idea in the British Parliament would 
probably call forth shouts of laughter and derision. There 
is no more recognition of a Divine government of the world 
in our legislature than in -that of Greece and Rome; -and reli- 
gion is never heard of, as a basis of legislation, except when 
some miserable sectarian interest demands the aid of Parlia- 
ment for its aggrandisement or protection. And what is the 
cause of this untoward state of things ? The interpretations of 
Scripture embodied in our prevailing dogmas, which have 
usurped the . place of Christianity, represent this world as 
a wreck, and incapable of improvement, except by superna- 
tural means, which can be evoked only by conduct in confor- 
mity with the dictates of church standards and catechisms ! 



LEGISLATION. 



243 



The national mind discerns no actual intelligible Divine Go- 
vernment in the world, and practical men find the principles 
laid down as Divine in the Dogmas little applicable to se- 
cular affairs ; hence comes the exclusion of the recognition of 
God's government of the world from our legislature, and also 
of all religion whatever ! Hence, also, the exclusion of in- 
struction in the rules of this government from schools, col- 
leges, churches, and literature ! What are the substitutes in 
Parliament for knowledge of these rules ? In all but a few great 
minds, we have only crude and conflicting notions about the 
laws of commerce, health, crime, education, and all the natural 
agencies which are producing the weal or woe of mankind. 
Hence, finally, government by party combinations, in support- 
ing which, men of honourable character do not hesitate, when 
in opposition, to maintain in debate that a principle or measure 
is wholly wrong, which, when in power, they defended as en- 
tirely sound and beneficial, or vice versa! When a Divine 
Government shall be recognised, such conduct will become in- 
dicative only of intellectual weakness or moral dishonesty, and 
this stigma on our national reputation will cease. 

In the legislation of the despotic countries of Europe, the 
effects of ignoring a Divine Government of the world are still 
more disastrous. The Sovereign claims to reign by Divine 
right, and uses the Dogmas to banish from the minds of his 
subjects every notion that he exercises only a delegated power, 
and that he and they live under laws enacted by an Authority 
which controls every act of his legislation, and produces good 
or evil from it, irrespective of his intentions' or wishes. The 
Emperor of Eussia, for example, appears not to perceive that 
by the order of Nature an Empire can attain the necessaries, 
comforts, and luxuries of life, which are indispensable to the 
enjoyment of the people as individuals, and to their strength 
as a nation, only by employing labour and skill in the de- 
velopment of their natural resources ; and that knowledge, mo- 
rality, and economy are necessary to their success. Apparently 
he does not believe that national greatness does not consist in 
mere length and breadth of territory and numbers of subjects ; 
or that the extension of his sovereignty over comparatively 
barren regions and barbarous men, has the natural tendency 
to distract his attention from raising the physical and moral 
condition of his people, also to weaken the central power, by 
stretching it over too wide a space, and thereby to lead to feeble 
and corrupt government, thence to anarchy, and finally to dis 
solution of his Empire. His religious dogmas have taught 
him that he is the vicegerent of God in his own dominions ; 
but apparently he does not perceive that Divine rules of con- 

Q2 



244 



EDUCATION. 



duct are prescribed by the order of Nature, and he acts as if 
they had no existence. Hence, he desires to augment his do- 
minions by absorbing into them, Circassia, Turkey, Persia, 
and other barbarous countries, wholly blind to the inevi- 
table exhaustion of the wealth, and destruction of the wel- 
fare, of the most civilized and industrious, and, therefore, the 
most estimable and valuable portion of his subjects, in grati- 
fying this unwise ambition. From not perceiving that these 
projects are immoral, and that, by the law of Nature, nothing 
that is immoral is permanent and strong, he does not discern the 
certain disastrous future which he is now providing for his em- 
pire. By a patient exposition of the modes of action of the 
natural forces, physical and moral, which determine human 
wellbeing or suffering, these results, in my opinion, might be 
demonstrated ; and yet religious dogmas exclude even the at- 
tempt to investigate the rules of conduct which they dictate, and 
discountenance their application to practical purposes ! 

Another disastrous effect of the Dogmas is seen in their 
influence in obstructing the education of the people. Many 
religious men denounce the teaching of science as " godless 
education." While they are thus nearly unanimous in prac- 
tically rejecting the course of Providence in Nature as a source 
of instruction, each places in the hands of the young its own 
Catechism of doctrines, its Liturgy, its Confession of Faith, 
or its other articles of belief ; and with the most pertinacious 
assiduity labours to imprint these indelibly on the memory, 
and to imbed them in the affections of its pupils. Mean- 
while many of the sects denounce the catechisms, liturgies, 
and confessions of certain others as unsound, unscriptural, 
and dangerous to the eternal welfare of the people. Here, 
then, is a record unquestionably Divine, in so far as we read 
it rightly, superseded and set aside for books of human com- 
pilation, denounced as unsound by large masses of the com- 
munity. 

The effect of this on education is described by Mr Horace 
Mann* in the following words : — " After the particular atten- 
tion which I gave to this subject (religious instruction) both in 
England and Scotland, I can say, without any exception, that, 
in those schools where religious creeds and forms of faith, and 
modes of Avorship, were directly taught, I found the common 
doctrines and injunctions of morality, and the meaning of the 
preceptive parts of the Gospel, to be much less taught and 

* Report of an Educational Tour in Germany and Parts of Great Britain and Ireland, 
by Horace Mann, Esq., Secretary of the Board of Education, Massachusetts, U. S. "With 
Preface and Notes, by W. B. Hodgson. London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1846. 



EDUCATION. 



245 



much less understood by the pupils, than in the same grade of 
schools, and by the same classes of pupils with us/' ^Massa- 
chusetts, where the teaching of all sectarian doctrines in com- 
mon schools is prohibited by law. Is not this sacrificing 
Christianity itself at the shrine of Sectarianism ? 

The elements of which a sect is composed, are the points 
in which it differs from other sects ; and its existence depends 
on the success and assiduity with which it infuses a knowledge 
of and reverence for these into the minds of the young. It 
represents them as subjects of the utmost importance to their 
temporal and eternal welfare. In the estimation of its zealous 
leaders, they greatly surpass in practical as well as religious 
importance, the order of Nature. If any sect were to cease in- 
vesting its points of difference with the highest reverence m 
the estimation of its pupils, and begin to magnify the truth and 
utility of the doctrines in which all are agreed, it would com- 
mit felo de se. Its dissolution and fusion into the general body 
of Christian believers would be inevitable and speedy. The 
more completely, therefore, the different sects obtain the com- 
mand of education, the greater will be the obstacles to the in- 
troduction of the order of Nature into schools. 

The points in which all Christian sects are agreed must 
constitute the essential substance of Christianity ; because it is 
on these that Christian men of all denominations act in the 
business and relations of life. Pious, honest, and benevolent 
men, abound in them all ; aud this common excellence must 
spring from a common source. The points on which they dif- 
fer, although forming the life-blood and bonds of union of 
sects, cannot constitute Christianity ; because if they did, the 
Christian religion would really have scarcely any practical 
form or substance. It would consist of abstract disquisitions, 
discernible only by microscopic eyes, and inapplicable to all 
beneficent ends. Who will say that the points of faith in 
which the Church of England differs frorn the Congregation- 
alists, or the views of church government in which the Free 
Church differs from the Established Church of Scotland— or 
the Secession Church from the Free Church — or the Scotch 
Episcopalian Church from them all — are the essential elements 
of Christianity ? And yet it is for the sake of maintaining 
these distinctions from generation to generation, and of trans- 
mitting to the remotest posterity the bitter contentions which 
have so frequently vexed the spirits and alloyed the happiness 
of this age, that we are called on to exclude instruction in the 
course of nature, as a guide to human conduct, from our schools ; 
to reject a system of education founded on the points in which 
all are agreed ; to prostrate the national mind beneath the 



246 



EDUCATION. 



car of sectarianism, and to allow it to be crushed and distorted 
by its unhallowed wheels ! 

Practical Christianity, on the other hand, and the laws of 
Nature, physical, organic, and moral, present the same instruc- 
tion and recommend the same line of action to all, and are, 
therefore, destructive of sectarianism. Hence the cry of 
infidelity which all sects raise against them ! Obedience to 
them is calculated to bind man to man, and nation to nation, by 
the ties of reciprocal interest as well as of affection and duty, 
and to bring all into communion with God. Our knowledge of 
them grows with the growth of science, and their influence in- 
creases with the augmentation of the prosperity which obedi- 
ence to their dictates yields. 

Every motive of duty and interest, therefore, calls on the 
laity and the Legislature to disenthral education from the 
dominion of sects, and to allow to God's providence a fair field 
for working out its beneficial ends. Disguise the fact as we 
will, the order of Nature — in other words, God's secular provi- 
dence — is a power which in this world shapes our destinies for 
weal or woe ; while the peculiar doctrines of sectarianism only 
exalt the consequence and power of clerical teachers, and the 
few zealous laymen who constitute their staff. To vote money, 
therefore, as is done under the Minutes of Council of August and 
December 1846, to every sect, to enable it to educate its own 
members in its own religious doctrines, is actually to endow 
discord. It is deserting the shrine of reason and of moral and 
religious principle, and bowing at that of prejudice and bigotry. 
It is renouncing all reverence for God's providence, as revealed 
in the course of nature ; for every one of the sects, if it does 
not exclude, deny, and denounce the order of Nature as a 
source of practical instruction to the young, at least practically 
treats it as a matter of small importance compared with its own 
peculiar dogmas. To give them the public money to enable 
them to pursue this course of instruction more effectually, is 
to encourage them in placing their own wisdom high above 
that of the Creator. Nor is this the worst feature of the case. 
To make the teaching of God's order of Providence in nature 
as religious truth, if the Dogmas are not taught along with 
it, an unsurmountable objection to granting public aid to secu- 
lar schools, is actually treating the Divine laws as dangerous, 
and, however, unintentionally, with contumely ; yet this is 
the rule of the Committee of Council on Education ! See Ap- 
pendix, No. IX. 

Truth alone can benefit a nation, and the doctrines of every 
seel cannot possibly be true : to give each of them public 
money, therefore, to teach its own tenets, is to endow equally 



EDUCATION. 



247 



truth and error. It is tantamount in physics to setting in mo- 
tion antagonistic forces ; in cookery, to paying one man to 
pour wormwood, and another sugar, into the cup of which the 
nation is to drink. By all means allow the men who pre- 
fer wormwood to fill their own bowl with it ; and those who 
prefer sugar to fill theirs with sugar ; but let not the Govern- 
ment, which superintends the cup out of which all must drink, 
pay men with national money to destroy the contents of that 
cup, and render them a potion which no human palate can en- 
dure. To pay all sects, who are teaching solemn contradic- 
tions, implies an utter disbelief in any intelligible order of 
God's providence on earth. It deliberately supersedes the 
teaching of it, and plants conflicting catechisms, liturgies, and 
confessions, in its place. If the heads of the Government 
cannot discern in science an exposition of the order of Nature, 
or, in other words, of the course of God's providence on earth, 
they may at least so far. defer to Divine wisdom and intelli- 
gence, as to believe that God's providence, however dark, must 
be self-consistent, and that it does not promise to prosper con- 
tradictions ! 

Will not the men of intellect and science who see this to 
be the case assume courage, speak out, and help to stem the 
torrent of sectarianism which overflows the land ? They have 
it in their power at this moment to do their country an invalu- 
able service, for which she would one day rear monuments of 
gratitude to their names. Will they, through fear of a little 
temporary obloquy, desert the standard of truth, of God, and 
of the people ? Let their own consciences answer the. appeal, 
and let them act as their consciences dictate. Will no teachers 
arise, embued with knowledge of the order of Nature, as un- 
folded in science, and, with faith in its adaptation to .the human 
faculties, communicate it, under the sanction of the religious 
sentiments, to the young, as a help to guide them through. the 
thorny paths of life? Yes! Such teachers exist, and they 
lack only the countenance of the enlightened laity to follow 
the strong impulses of their affections and understandings, and 
accomplish this great improvement in secular instruction. 

Moreover, under the . sectarian system, not only is the ad- 
vancing intelligence of the people shackled by the consecrated 
errors of the dark ages, but the most vigorous and profound 
thinkers among the clergy of all denominations are subdued 
and held in thraldom by their feebler brethren. The men of 
inferior endowments and intelligence take their stand on the 
accredited dogmas, which they cherish because they are in 
accordance with their own narrow and prejudiced percep- 
tions ; and they resist every liberal idea and study that has the 



248 



EDUCATION. 



most remote appearance of conflicting with their preconceived 
ideas. As they exert a great influence over a half-educated 
people, trained to regard their doctrines with holy reverence, 
the more powerful minds too generally retire from the field, 
and leave to them an undisputed sway. 

The hest interests of society suffer from this unhappy state 
of things ; whereas if Nature were taught, as the harmonious 
ally of a sounder interpretation of Christianity, the men en- 
dowed with the profoundest intellects, and the purest and 
most elevated emotions, would lead the general mind, and we 
should constantly advance. In the present time, the leaders 
of the Calvinistic sects are strenuously exerting themselves to 
bring back the public sentiment to the opinions of the middle of 
the seventeenth century; and if they do not succeed, it is science 
alone which prevents this consummation of their labours. 

From the neglect of Nature by the sects, and the paramount 
importance which they attach, to their own peculiar doctrines, 
they languish when not excited by contention among them- 
selves. Dr Candlish illustrated this fact lately, when he called 
on the Free Church to renew and proclaim its " testimony in 
other words, constantly to obtrude on public attention the 
peculiar views which distinguish it from all other sects. He 
assigned, as the motive for doing so, the danger of decay, with 
which it appears already to be threatened, from its distinctive 
characteristics being forgotten, seeing that its standards, doc- 
trines, and discipline, are identical with those of the Esta- 
blished Church of Scotland. There is no perennial source of 
activity and progress in any doctrine that is not in harmony 
with and supported by the course of nature. A scheme, on 
the contrary, founded on Christianity interpreted in conformity 
with God's natural laws, will enjoy an inherent vitality, and a 
self-rectifying energy, that will cause it constantly to nourish 
and advance. It will in time root out sectarian errors, and 
unite all classes in the bonds of harmonious truth. 

In advocating a non-sectarian system of national educa- 
tion, I do not propose to deliver over scholars and teachers to 
government officers, with power to mould their minds into 
whatever forms our rulers may prefer, as some advocates of 
sectarian instruction pretend. The United States of North 
America have set us a bright example in this enterprise. They 
have divided their country into convenient spaces, and desig- 
nated them as school-districts. The existing law of Massachu- 
setts (Revised Statutes, 1835, title x., chap. 23), ordains that 
districts containing fifty families shall maintain one school — 
districts containing one hundred and fifty families shall pro- 
vide two schools ; and so forth, — " in which children shall be 



EDUCATION. 



249 



instructed in reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, and good 
behaviour, by teachers of competent ability and good morals." 
Larger districts, again, are required to maintain a school, " in 
which the history of the United States, book-keeping, survey- 
ing, geometry, and algebra, shall be taught." And if the 
locality shall contain four thousand inhabitants, the teacher 
shall — " in addition to all the branches above enumerated, be 
competent to instruct in the Latin and Greek languages, 
general history, rhetoric, and logic." The law requires the in- 
habitants to raise money by taxing themselves for supporting 
these schools, and ordains them to appoint committees annually 
for managing them.* 

We are told, however, by some able opponents of the edu- 
cational scheme introduced by the orders of Council, that Go- 
vernment has no right to interfere with the secular instruction 
of the people, and that voluntary effort is adequate to accom- 
plish all that is needed for the public welfare. In my late 
" Kemarks on National Education," I endeavoured to shew that 
Government is not only entitled, but bound, to enable the people, 
by legislative aid, to organize their own wealth and intelligence 
for the establishment and maintenance of schools for universal 
instruction ; and I now beg to add, that experience shews that 
legislative aid far excels voluntary effort in this good work. 
England has been left to voluntary effort for the education of 
her people from the foundation of her institutions, and what 
has been the result : Mr Horace Mann, in his Educational Tour, 
says : " England is the only one among the nations of Europe, 
conspicuous for its civilization and resources, which has not, 
and never has had, any system for the education of its people. 
And it is the country where, incomparably beyond any other, the 
greatest and most appalling social contrast exists ; ivhere, in 
comparison with the intelligence, wealth, and refinement of what 
are called the higher classes, there is the most ignorance, poverty, 
and crime among the lower ! Owing to the inherent vice and 
selfishness of their system, or their no-system, there is.no 
country in which so little is effected, compared with their ex- 
penditure of means ; and what is done only tends to separate 
the different classes of society more and more widely from each 
other." 

There is a great difference between the influence of the 
voluntary principle when applied to the support of churches, 
and of schools for the poor. The main object of the church is to 
provide means for securing the eternal salvation of the contri- 
butor and his family — a most momentous consideration to every 

* Farther details concerning the machinery by which the schools are managed, and 
the taxes levied, in Massachusetts, will be found in an article in the Edinburgh Review 
for July 1841, under the title of" Education in America." 



250 



SUNDAY. 



reflecting man. It involves the selfish principles of his nature, 
as well as his affections and his sense of religious duty. The 
school for the poor, on the other hand, addresses chiefly his 
moral and religious sentiments, leaving his self-interest far in 
the rear. Experience shews that these emotions do not suf- 
fice to induce the rich to provide sufficiently for the physical 
wants of the poor, and in consequence, Parliament has enacted 
poor-laws. Why, then, should we rely on them for providing 
for a less clamant mental destitution ? 

The dogmas are obstructing educational progress in still 
another direction. They are depriving society of the full bene- 
ficial use of the Sunday. Their adherents insist that that day 
shall be devoted exclusively to hearing the dogmas preached, 
and to practising the solemnities they inculcate. One whole day 
of rest in seven is, to a toil-worn people, an inestimable boon, the 
necessity of which is clearly proclaimed by the constitution of 
our organism ; and if judiciously employed, it may be rendered a 
grand instrument of civilization. If nature is a Divine Institu- 
tion, and if it teaches rules of practical conduct to men, what a 
precious day may Sunday become when it shall be devoted in an 
adequate measure to the exposition of these rules and of the won- 
derful structures and estrangements of Nature on which they 
are founded ! How gratifying to all our faculties, to the wants 
of which they are adapted by Divine wisdom and goodness ! 
And how fruitful in benefits to the mind and body of man ! 
But under the thraldom of the Dogmas, all this instruction, if 
given on Sundays, is regarded as sin, and society is excluded 
from the advantages of receiving it on that day — the only one 
set apart for mental improvement. The laborious inhabitants 
of our large towns who cannot travel in quest of the elements 
of this instruction and enjoyment, have had these brought to 
them by the philanthropy of a few enlightened men, in the form 
of parks, museums, and collections of works of art, all calculated 
not only to recreate a wearied body and brain, but to furnish 
captivating texts from which the most salutary and elevating 
practical lessons may be drawn. God has bestowed on us fa- 
culties of Melody and Time ; endowed timber, steel, brass, 
and the air with qualities exquisitely fitting them to minis- 
ter to their gratification, and given us constructive talents 
enabling us to combine and apply these materials to the pro- 
duction of sounds capable of soothing us in sorrow, inspiring 
us with gay and cheerful emotions, rousing us to fervid ac- 
tion, or lifting up our whole being in wrapt devotion to Him 
the Giver of all Good. If benevolent design can be proved to 
human apprehension, here is evidence of it in abundance. Yet 



SUNDAY. 



251 



the adherents of the Dogmas petition the Legislature, and suc- 
cessfully too, to shut up all these museums and collections of 
works of art, and to withdraw musical performances from the 
public parks on Sundays ! They claim the whole of that day 
to themselves. But under their teaching and preaching there 
is scarcely any social progress. Their dogmas are stereotyped, 
and ever the same ; and I can bear testimony, that for fifty 
years I attended churches, and after the first four or five, when 
everything was new, I rarely received any addition to my 
knowledge ; and it is to maintain the interminable repetition 
of such doctrines that God, His works, His wisdom, and His 
lessons, so prolifically abounding in nature, must be thrust aside 
as profane, unprofitable, and unfitted for the day set apart by 
society for rest, devotion, recreation, and instruction in things 
that are Divine! If the Dogmas were removed, or modified, and 
a more rational interpretation of the Bible introduced, and the 
elements of science and the practical rules of conduct they dic- 
tate were taught in schools as God's revelations for our guid- 
ance, we should come prepared to hear the same sublime and 
soul-elevating instruction extended and enforced every Sunday 
from the pulpit ; and it appears to me . that the beneficial con- 
sequences to society would be incalculably great. Progress 
would never cease ; monotony would be the fault of sloth and 
incapacity alone ; and no man of average mental endowments 
could truly say at the close of fifty years of such preaching, I 
" am no wiser and little better than I was at the beginning." 

The unreasonableness of the oppression exercised by the 
adherents of the Dogmas over society in regard to the enjoy- 
ment of these sources of improvement and happiness on Sun- 
days, is the more striking when we consider on what it is 
founded. From infancy, certain interpretations of the Fourth 
Commandment have been entwined in their minds with their 
religious emotions, and have become sacred in their esti- 
mation. They are unconscious that the sacred and religious 
character of the notions has been given to them by training, and 
regard them as infallible Divine truths. The inhabitants of 
Continental Europe, on the other hand, holding the same Com- 
mandment in their hands, put a different interpretation on the 
words, and, under the influence of their training, regarding that 
interpretation as the sound one, act on it. Nevertheless 
our dogmatists seem incapable of conceiving that these other 
opinions can possibly be true ; and not satisfied with un- 
bounded liberty to act on their own impressions, they insist 
on forcing these on their countrymen ! They not only refuse to 
listen on Sundays to God's teaching in Nature, but prohibit their 
equals from enjoying this unspeakable pleasure and advantage. 



252 



SUNDAY. 



Finally, — In all ages and countries, religions teachers have 
succeeded in persuading their own flocks that only their doc- 
trines constitute true religion, are capable of supporting the 
mind in affliction, and are certain to lead to salvation ; and lay- 
men, when trained from infancy under such impressions, 
really feel no religion in their souls, and cannot, even by their 
understandings, conceive any to exist that is calculated to pro- 
duce these effects, except that which is embodied in their own 
tenets. When, therefore, a doctrine, be it that of election or 
the fall of man, or any other (however uncertain in its foun- 
dation, and vehemently disputed by other sects), which has 
been woven into the mind of an individual as the only founda- 
tion of his hopes and consolations, happens to be subverted, ' 
he is really deprived, pro tempore, of his religion, and all its 
accompanying advantages and enjoyments ; for he has no reli- 
gion unconnected with belief in the dogmas which have pe- 
rished. Such believers are as sensitive to every doubt thrown 
on their faith as they would be to an attack on their lives ; 
and if they are not strong-minded, or are past the middle pe- 
riod of life, they only obey the law of their nature in feeling 
and thinking in this manner. Were it likely that any of 
them would peruse these pages, I should be most unwilling 
to disturb their tranquillity. On the contrary, I should refer 
them to the case of Kammohun Koy s mother, and encourage 
them to hold fast by the faith which gives them support and 
consolation. Though convinced that his Christian doctrines 
were true, she could not throw off the shackles of idolatrous 
customs. " Kammohun/' she said to him before she set out 
on her last pilgrimage to the Temple of Juggernaut, " you are 
right, but 1 am a weak woman, and am grown too old to give 
up these observances, which are a comfort to me." She main- 
tained them with the most self-denying devotion. She would 
not allow a female servant to accompany her ; or any other 
provision to be made for her comfort, or even support on her 
journey : and when at Juggernaut, she engaged in sweeping 
the temple of the idol. There she spent the remainder of her 
life- — nearly a year, if not more ; and there she died.* When 
Melancthon paid a visit to his mother in her old age, she asked 
11 What am I to believe amidst so many different opinions of 
the present day ?" To which he answered, — " G-o on, believe 
and pray as you now do and have done before, and do not dis- 
turb yourself about the disputes and controversies of the times." 
— {Life of Melancthon, by Francis Augustus Cox, A.M., 2d 
edit., p. 281.) 

* Review of the Labours, Opinions, and Character of Rajah Raminohun Roy, by 
Lant Carpenter, LL.D. London, 1S33. 



CONCLUSION. 



253 



CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUSION. 

In reference to the present condition and future prospects of 
the Eeligion of Christendom, the fundamental point to be de- 
termined appears to me to be — Whether the world, as it now 
exists, is merely the wreck of a better system, — or an Institu- 
tion ? If it is the former, I leave to other hands, the task of 
mending its disjointed parts, and educing from them whatever 
good they can be made to yield. If it is an Institution, — then, 
as before remarked, it will be our duty and our interest to 
regard it with respect as the design of its Author, to try to dis- 
cover its plan, and to conform to its laws. With this view we 
may approach the study of it in the following order : — 

Human nature will constitute the central point of our in- 
vestigations ; because the adaptations of the world to our 
capacities, wants, and desires cannot be understood while the 
latter are unknown. If the views of man's nature, stated in 
Chapter III., §§ 1 and 2, and elucidated in the Appendix, No. 
II., be well founded, physiology will form one grand source from 
which this information will be derived. 

If we find evidence, as maintained in Chapter III., § 4, 
that man is constitutionally a religious being — then we shall 
see a firm foundation in nature for religion ; and if, as stated 
in § 5, we discover in him organs of the moral emotions, we 
shall perceive also an indestructible basis for morality. 

These two points being fixed, the next question will be — 
Whether nature is constituted in such a relationship to our 
religious faculties as to inspire us intuitively with belief in the 
existence of a supernatural Power and Intelligence — whom we 
call God ? The affirmative of this question is maintained in 
Chapter V., p. 66. If this conclusion is well founded, we shall 
then be led to view our own constitution and that of the 
external world, as institutions proceeding from this super- 
natural Power, and under this conviction our duties will 
become obvious. 

If we desire to be healthy and to live long, we shall enquire 
into the conditions on which He has been pleased to dispense 



254 



CONCLUSION. 



these advantages. If we desire to possess the necessa- 
ries, elegancies, and beneficial luxuries that contribute, by 
His appointment, to the enjoyment of life, Ave shall try to 
discover and to fulfil the conditions on which He offers to us 
these advantages. If we wish to live in the society of in- 
telligent, moral, religious, industrious, and happy men — we 
shall enquire into and fulfil the social duties on which He has 
made these boons to depend. Finally, if we desire to improve 
our whole being to its highest attainable point of perfection, 
and to raise our souls to communion with their Divine Author, 
we shall acquire and carry into practice the kind of know- 
ledge, the morality, and the religion which He has rendered 
indispensable to our highest state of existence on earth. 

These are not Utopian and impracticable ideas ; for, be it 
observed, if the world is an Institution and man's faculties are 
adapted to it, there must be divinely appointed ways of gratify- 
ing these powers, and the corollary seems evident that man 
must be capable of finding them out and complying with their 
requirements, when he shall seriously apply his endowments 
to this end. 

Our next aim should be to discover the qualities, agencies, 
and relations of natural objects. These exist and act under 
divinely imposed laws ; which we call the Laws of Nature. 
As we cannot alter the qualities, suspend their action, or pre- 
vent the consequences which have been attached to it, our chief 
duty in regard to them will be to investigate them and to dis- 
cover everything that can be known regarding them. This is 
the aim of scientific enquiry as now conducted; and the expisca- 
tion of the qualities and agencies of natural objects should 
continue to be conducted on purely scientific principles, for 
the sake of the knowledge which it affords, without, in the first 
instance, attempting to apply it to moral and religious purposes. 
But the Divine origin of Nature should be constantly inculcated, 
and all our investigations should be conducted in a reverential 
spirit. 

In the next place, all the thoroughly ascertained facts con- 
cerning the qualities and agencies of nature should be surveyed 
in their relations to man. When they are compared with his 
position, structure, wants, capacities, and desires, it will be seen 
that highly instructive rules of conduct are dictated to his un- 
derstanding by Divine wisdom in these qualities, agencies, and 
relations. Examples of this fact are given in Chapter VI. 
Now, I respectfully maintain that these rules, when correctly 
inferred, are Divine Laws, because the things from which they 
are deduced are Divine Institutions, and obedience to them is 
enforced by the consequences attached to them, which man can 



CONCLUSION. 



255 



neither alter nor evade. Here, then, we have Divine Law and 
Divine discipline combined. To render these rules moral in 
our minds, we require only to entwine them from infancy with 
our natural moral emotions ; and to render them religious, to 
present them habitually to our religious emotions as Divine, 
and train our whole faculties to reverence and obey them. 

If, by training, the doctrines of Calvinism quoted on pages 
186-7, and the dancing evolutions of the Shakers described on 
page 204, and in the Appendix, No. VI., have been invested 
with sacred qualities, become religious truths, and solemn 
ceremonies of Divine worship in the minds of large classes 
of good and intelligent people, why should we doubt that rules 
which can be demonstrated to be Divine, may be made to as- 
sume a moral and religious character, when proper means shall 
be used to communicate to them in our apprehension that 
sanctity which they inherently possess ? The low estimate 
which is now formed of them, as rules of prudence, but not of 
moral or religious obligation, appears to me to arise solely 
from the misdirection of our moral and religious emotions to 
other objects, and to the false light in which we have been 
taught to view man and the world. 

In the reformed faith, a distinction will be made between 
religion and theology. Religion will rest on the sentiments 
of Veneration, Hope, and Wonder, as its basis, and be recognised 
as emotional in its nature ; its elements being reverence, ad- 
miration, and faith. It will be seen that, by training, these 
emotions may be directed to almost any objects or doctrines; 
which, by being closely associated with them, assume a sacred 
or religious character. Hence, by such training, all truth con- 
ducive to human happiness may be rendered religious. 

Theology will be referred to the intellectual faculties and 
their organs as its basis ; and these will not permit any objects 
or doctrines to be associated with the religious emotions which 
they cannot comprehend and trace to Divine authority. The 
intellect will not pretend to comprehend the nature of God, 
but will recognise His existence, such of His attributes as it 
sees manifested, and also His Will, as revealed in His works ; 
and it will compose a theology out of these elements, associate 
them with the religious emotions, and thus constitute a religion. 
Forms will be invented to give expression to this religion, and 
in which to teach it to the people. 

Morality will be recognised as resting on the sentiments of 
Benevolence and Conscientiousness, as its peculiar basis, using 
the intellect to give it form in precepts and laws, and to direct 
us in its practical applications. It will include the proper use 
of all the other faculties. It will not be viewed as dependent 



256 



CONCLUSION. 



on religion for its foundation, but be regarded as a co-ordinate 
supreme tribunal, having authority in co-operation with the 
intellect and religious emotions, to direct all the faculties to- 
wards their proper objects, — itself receiving from the latter a 
sacred and religious character. There will then be no accepted 
religious duty at variance with morality, and no morality that 
is discordant with religion. 

The desire of perfection will be recognised as resting on 
Ideality, which, combined with the intellect, will prompt to 
constant improvement in all arts and sciences, and, combined 
with the moral and religious sentiments, will give an intense 
pleasure in elevating human nature, and applying all its 
powers to their highest objects. 

" The higher life/' under the reformed faith, will consist in 
the zealous endeavour to improve every organ and faculty in 
ourselves and others, and to direct them to their highest uses. 
Intellect will investigate the means by which these ends can 
be accomplished, and it will recognise the order of the Divine 
government as its rule and guide. The moral and religious 
sentiments will sanctify and elevate the results of the researches 
of the intellect, and also the labour of the hands and the head 
in giving them practical effect. The grace or good will of God 
will be recognised as pervading all objects and beings, inviting 
us to study and apply their qualities to their proper uses, with 
unhesitating faith that increase of knowledge and obedience 
will be accompanied by augmentation of happiness and holi- 
ness. 

It is in vain to object that hitherto natural religion has been 
barren. It has had no key to the real principles of the Divine 
government, and could not become practical. It may accom- 
plish more when this key has been discovered. 

A great revolution in human perception, judgment, and ac- 
tion, will follow the general diffusion of the reformed faith. 
The selfishness, vices, and crimes, through which individuals 
and nations at present too frequently seek to attain happiness, 
will be recognised as follies as well as offences ; and every in- 
dividual will find that the most effectual way to promote his 
own wellbeing is that which likewise advances the improve- 
ment and enjoyment of his fellows. 

In regard to his future destiny ; under the reformed faith 
he will rely with confidence and resignation on the goodness 
of that Divine Power which has called him into existence here, 
and bestowed on him so many admirable enjoyments. He will 
claim nothing as a right, but hope all as a boon. 

Whose duty will it be to deduce, expound, render sacred, these 
Divine rules of conduct and apply them to the promotion of 



CONCLUSION. 



257 



human wellbeing, morality, and religion ? In my opinion, 
that of the clergyman, moral philosopher, and teacher. 

What a glorious profession that of a clergyman will then 
become ! With an immovable and indestructible foundation 
for morality and religion ; with a knowledge of man's admirable 
capacities and high aspirations ; with an understanding cleared 
of mists and prejudices, and alive to the perception of Divine 
power, wisdom, and goodness, radiating from every object ; 
an ear open to the precepts which that wisdom is teaching ; 
benevolent, just, and reverential emotions excited to intensity 
by the contemplation of this assemblage of Divine gifts, and the 
wide world before him in which to apply all this knowledge, and 
to expand these emotions in diffusing truth, happiness, and a 
spirit of obedience to God, he will occupy a position which even 
angels might envy. The priests, temples, churches, creeds, 
catechisms, and confessions, which fill such large and conspi- 
cuous positions in the history of all ages and nations, are the 
forms in which the moral and religious emotions have welled 
forth and embodied themselves on earth. Far, therefore, from 
looking on them with indifference, I see in them manifesta- 
tions of the highest human endowments, in many instances 
straying for want of light, but still holy in their aspirations ; 
and I rejoice in the religious fervour and agitation of our own 
day, as indicative of the heaving of these sublime emotions 
labouring to cast off the load of errors and superstitions which 
now oppresses them. Nor need the Bible form any obstacle 
to this consummation. It appears to me that with far less 
violence than has been done to it in framing the Westminster 
Confession of Faith, a new creed could be formed, every point 
of which would harmonize with a sound Natural Keligion, 
adding from the Scriptures, doctrines beyond the reach of 
reason, but not contradicting it. From all I have learnt of 
the progress of opinion among thinking men who have studied 
the subject, the conclusion is forced on me, that within the 
next fifty years this must be done, otherwise Christianity, as 
now taught, will perish. Were this course followed, every 
church would become a focus of Divine light, radiating bless- 
ings on humanity, and every school a vestibule to the church. 

In the school, Physiology and the Laws of Life and Health 
(See Appendix, No. X.), and Social Economy, or an exposition 
of man's position and duties as the administrator of external 
nature, and of the natural laws which regulate his success or 
failure in his trade, profession, or other employment, should 
form the first elements of scientific instruction. I have as- 
sisted in teaching these branches of knowledge to children 
from 10 to 14 years of age, and in leading their understandings 



258 



CONCLUSION. 



to deduce from them, rules of practical conduct, which they 
recognised as Divine injunctions or commands, and I can tes- 
tify that the interest and effect of the lessons was greatly en- 
hanced by this appeal to their moral and religious emotions. 

The failure of most attempts to support continued interest 
in scientific lectures in Mechanics' Institutes is now gene- 
rally recognised and lamented, but the cause of it has been 
little thought of. It appears to me discernible. Pure science 
addresses the intellectual faculties only. In the working- 
classes in general these have not been cultivated, either in 
their school instruction or practically in their trades. They 
come to the lecture-room, therefore, untrained to intellectual 
exertions, and many of them weary with toil ; and indifference 
to abstract science is the natural consequence of their condi- 
tion. But their moral and religious emotions possess far 
greater power and activity than their intellectual faculties ; 
and judging from the analogy of children, I should expect that 
they would listen with profound and sustained interest to 
courses of lectures based on clear scientific expositions of the 
structure, qualities, and modes of action of natural objects, ac- 
companied by demonstrations of the rules of conduct which 
their Divine Author, through them, dictates to us for our guid- 
ance. By appeals to their moral and religious emotions, and 
a convincing elucidation of the practical bearing of these laws 
on their wellbeing and improvement, the lessons would pro- 
bably become living fountains of instruction and enjoyment. 

If all this is not a dream, the day will come when these Di- 
vine rules for the guidance of our conduct, with the basis in 
science on which they are founded, will be taught in every 
school, preached from every pulpit, promulgated by the press, 
enforced by the law, and supported by an overwhelming 
public opinion ; and then the incapable, and the ill- consti- 
tuted in brain and body, whose actions now form the great 
afflictions of society, will be protected, restrained, and guided 
by social power, directed by benevolence, intelligence, and 
justice, and their crimes and sufferings will be circumscribed. 
Under the illuminating influence and discipline of the Divine 
law, Hell will probably appear unnecessary , Heaven will be rea- 
lized on earth, and Man will prove himself by his conduct to be 
better fitted for an immortality of glory than he has ever hither- 
to been. Some religious sects rely on a millennium, in which 
human nature will appear in the perfection of its powers and 
in possession of its highest enjoyments. This hope appears to 
me to spring from the insatiable desires of Ideality for perfec- 
tion, and of Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, 
for the universal prevalence of happiness, truth, piety, and jus- 



CONCLUSION. 



259 



tice. The aspirations may be clothed in fanciful forms, but 
in themselves they are real ; and nature appears to me to point 
in a similar direction. 

The opinion advocated in this work, that a Divine government 
is discernible in Nature, is gaining strength in public convic- 
tion. On page 10 I have cited a letter on this subject from Lord 
Palmerston to the Presbytery of Edinburgh ; and in a speech 
delivered by his Lordship in Manchester, in November 1856, 
he is reported to have said : — " If a man. were to enter a town 
of some foreign country where there were laws the violation of 
which was attended with pain, imprisonment, or, it may be, 
with death, would he not be deemed mad if he did not take 
the earliest opportunity to make himself acquainted with these 
enactments, so that he might avoid the penalties attached to 
their infringement ? Yet there are laws of nature applicable to 
the daily pursuits of men, which, if not attended to, inflict 
bodily pain in the form of diseases, imprisonment in the shape 
of the loss of corporeal powers, and even death, through the 
neglect of those sanitary conditions on which life depends. 
How important, then, it is that the working-classes should be 
made aware of those natural laws and regulations which are 
indispensable to their own welfare, and to that of their fami- 
lies/' His Eoyal Highness Prince Albert,* is reported to have 
expressed the opinion, that " Man is approaching a more 
complete fulfilment of that great and sacred mission which 
he has to perform in this world. His reason being created 
after the image of God, he has to use it to discover the laws 
by which the Almighty governs His creation, and, by mak- 
ing these laws his standard of action, to conquer nature 
to his use — himself a divine instrument. Science discovers 
these laws of power, motion, and transformation ; industry ap- 
plies them to the raw matter which the earth yields us in abun- 
dance, but which becomes valuable only by knowledge ; art 
teaches us the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry, and 
gives to our productions forms in accordance with them." 

Again, in a speech delivered at Birmingham in November 
1855, his Eoyal Highness is reported to have said: — " The 
study of the laws by which the Almighty governs the universe 
is our bounden duty. Of these laws our great academies and 
seats of education have, rather arbitrarily, selected only two 
spheres or groups (as I may call them), as essential parts of 
our national education — the laws which regulate quantities 
and proportions, which form the subject of mathematics ; and 
the laws regulating the expression of our thoughts through the 

* At the Mansion-House, 21st March 1850. 



260 



CONCLUSION. 



medium of language — that is to say, grammar, which finds its 
purest expression in the classical languages. These laws are 
most important branches of knowledge ; their study trains and 
elevates the mind. But they are not the only ones ; there are 
others which we cannot disregard — which we cannot do with- 
out. There are, for instance, the laws governing the human 
mind and its relations to the Divine Spirit — the subjects of 
logic and metaphysics. There are those which govern our 
bodily nature and its connection with the soul — the subjects of 
physiology and psychology ; those which govern human society 
and the relations between man and man — the subjects of poli- 
tics, jurisprudence, and political economy ; and many others." 

In contemplating the endowments of man, the provision 
made in nature for his happiness, and the order of God's provi- 
dence for encouraging him to work out his own improvement 
and elevation, the intelligent mind thrills with vivid emotions 
of love, gratitude, and admiration of their great Author. A 
" present Deity" is felt to be no longer a figure of speech or a 
flight of poetry, but a positive and operating reality. We not 
only feel that we " live, and move, and have our being" in God, 
but become acquainted with the means through which His 
power, wisdom, and goodness affect us, and discover that we 
are invited, as His moral and intelligent creatures, to co-operate 
in the fulfilment of His designs. The beautiful exclamations 
of King David, " If I climb up into heaven, Thou art there ; 
if I go down to hell, Thou art there also ; if I take the wings 
of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 
even there also shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand 
shall hold me," are felt to be expressions of a living truth ; and 
man takes his true station as the interpreter and administra- 
tor of nature under the guidance of nature's God. 



NAMES OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL ORGANS. 

REFERRING TO THE FIGURES INDICATING THEIR RELATIVE POSITION. 

AFFECTIVE. INTELLECTUAL. 



I. PROPENSITIES. 

1. Amativeness. 

2. Philoprogenitiveness. 

3. Concentrativeness. 

4. Adhesiveness. 

5. Combativeness. 

6. Destructiveness. 

6. a. Alimentiveness. 

Love of Life. 

7. f ecretiveness. 

8. Acq usitiveness. 

9. Cor.itmcliveness. 



II. SENTIMENTS. 

10. Self-Esteem. 

11. Love of Approbation. 

12. Cautiousness. 

13. Benevolence. 

14. Veneration. 

15. Firmness. 

16. Conscientiousness. 

17. Hope. 

18. Wonder. 

19. Ideality. 

19. a Unascertained. 

20. Wit or Mirthfulness.^ 

21. Imitation. 



I. PERCEPTIVE. 

22. Individuality. 



Form. 

24. Size. 

25. Weight. 

26. Colouring. 

27. Locality. 

28. Number. 

29. Order. 

30. Eventuality. 

31. Time. 

32. Tune. 

33. Language. 



II. REFLECTIVE. 

34. Comparison. 

35. Causality. 



262 



APPENDIX. NO. II. 



No. II. — 'Evidence op the Influence of the Brain on Feeling- 
and Thought. (Referred to on p. 28.) 

The influence of the brain on the power of thinking and feeling, is eluci- 
dated by the observed effects of sleep, of stopping the flow of blood to the 
brain, of altering its normal state by drugs, of compressing it, and of dis- 
eases which change its condition. 

If, through sudden fright, or congestion of blood in the liver or lungs, or 
any other cause which greatly diminishes the action of the heart, the supply 
of arterial blood to the brain be withheld, fainting or entire unconsciousness 
ensues : The manifestations of a thinking and feeling mind disappear, and 
are not restored till the action of the heart recommences. 

Again : When we inhale carbonic acid gas, the blood ceases to be capable 
of stimulating the brain, and the same prostration of mental power is ob- 
served. When we breathe air impregnated with chloroform, sensation and 
consciousness are suspended, while the power of muscular movement partially 
remains. 

In profound sleep also, consciousness is entirely suspended. We neither 
think nor feel, and to us neither time, nor the external world, nor ourselves, 
appear to exist. Physiologists regard these results as the effects of a cer- 
tain condition of the brain. In a case which fell under the notice of the 
distinguished German physiologist Blumenbach, the brain was seen to sink 
whenever the patient was asleep, and to swell again with blood the moment 
he awoke.* 

Another case is reported by Dr Pierquin, as having been observed by 
him in one of the hospitals of Montpelier, in the year 1821. The patient 
was a female, who had lost a large portion of her scalp, skull, and dura 
mater, so that a corresponding portion of the brain was subject to inspec- 
tion. When she was in a dreamless sleep, her brain was motionless, and 
lay within the cranium. When her sleep was imperfect, and she was agitated 
by dreams, her brain moved, and protruded without the cranium, forming 
cerebral hernia. In vivid dreams, reported as such by herself, the protru- 
sion was considerable ; and when she was perfectly awake, especially if en- 
gaged in active thought or sprightly conversation, it was still greater. t A 
writer in the Medico-Chirurgical Revieiv, after alluding to this case, men- 
tions that many years ago he had " frequent opportunities of witnessing 
similar phenomena in a robust young man, who lost a considerable portion 
of his skull by an accident which had almost proved mortal. When ex- 
cited by pain, fear, or anger, his brain protruded greatly, so as sometimes 
to disturb the dressings, which were necessarily applied loosely ; and it 
throbbed tumultuously, in accordance with the arterial pulsations. "J 

But cases of compression of the brain afford irrefragable evidence that 
in this life the exercise of the thinking power depends on the state of that 
organ. M. Richerand had a patient whose brain was exposed in conse- 
quence of disease of the skull. One day, in washing off the purulent matter, 
he chanced to press with more than usual force ; and instantly the patient, 
who, the moment before, had answered his questions with perfect correct- 
ness, stopped short in the middle of a sentence, and became altogether in- 

* Elliotson's " Blumenbach," 4th edition, p. 283. 

t " Annals of Phrenology/' No. I., Boston, U. S., Oct. 1833, p. 37. 

* " Medico-Chirurgical Review," No. 46, p. 363, Oct. 1835. 



APPENDIX. — NO. II. 



263 



sensible. As the pressure gave her no pain, it was repeated thrice, and 
always with the same result. She uniformly recovered her faculties the 
moment the pressure was taken off. M. Richerand mentions also the case 
of an individual who was trepanned for a fracture of the skull, and whose 
faculties and consciousness became weak in proportion as the # pus so accu- 
mulated under the dressings as to occasion pressure of the brain.* A man 
at the battle of Waterloo had a small portion of his skull beaten in upon 
the brain, and became quite unconscious, and almost lifeless ; but Mr Cooper 
having raised up the depressed portion of bone, the patient immediately 
arose, dressed himself, became perfectly rational, and recovered rapidly* t 
Professor Chapman of Philadelphia mentions in his Lectures, that he saw 
an individual with his skull perforated, and the brain exposed, who used to 
submit himself to the same experiment of pressure as that performed on 
Richerand's patient, and who was exhibited by the late Professor Wistar to 
his class. The man's intellect and emotional faculties disappeared when pres- 
sure was applied to the brain : they were literally " held under the thumb, 
and could be restored at pleasure to their full activity 4 A still more re- 
markable case is that of a person named Jones, recorded by Sir Astley 
Cooper. This man was deprived of consciousness, by being wounded in the 
head, while on board a vessel in the Mediterranean. In this state of insen- 
sibility he remained for several months at Gibraltar, whence he was trans- 
mitted to Deptford, and subsequently to St Thomas's Hospital, London. 
Mr Cline, the surgeon, found a portion of the skull depressed, trepanned 
him, and removed the depressed part of the bone. Three hours after this 
operation he sat up in bed, sensation and volition returned, and in four days 
he Avas able to get up and converse. The last circumstance he remembered 
was the capture of a prize in the Mediterranean thirteen months before. 
A young man at Hartford, in the United States of America, was rendered 
insensible by a fall, and had every appearance of being in a dying condi- 
tion. Dr Brigham removed more than a gill of clotted blood from beneath 
the skull ; upon which " the man immediately spoke, soon recovered his 
mind entirely, and is now, six weeks after the accident, in good health both 
as to mind and bo r ly."§ 

The question may present itself, Why did pressure applied to only a small 
portion of the brain induce general insensibility, instead of disturbing only 
a single faculty ? The answer is this : — The brain is soft and pulpy ; and is 
very full of blood-vessels, which during life contain a large quantity of blood. 
It is enveloped in an unyielding air-tight case, so that it approaches very 
closely to the condition of a fluid mass contained within a hollow sphere. 
By the law which regulates the pressure of fluids, force applied to any por- 
tion of such a mass, diffuses itself equally over the whole of it ; and every 
part is pressed with the same degree of force. This law applies to the 
brain ; and all the faculties are suspended, because the flow of blood in 
all the vessels is impeded, and all the brain is compressed. If a blow cut 
the skull and integuments, so as to allow the blood to escape outwardly, 
or the brain to protrude, the pressure will cease, and general insensibility 
will not ensue. 

When the whole brain becomes diseased, general insanity ensues, and 
when particular parts of it are affected, only particular mental powers suf- 
fer. These facts are so generally admitted, that it appears unnecessary 

* " Nouveaux Elemens de Physiologie," 7th edition, ii. 195-6. 

t Hennen's " Principles of Military Surgery." 

} " Principles of Medicine," by Samuel Jackson, M.D. 

£ " Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation, &c, upon Health," by Ainariah 
Brigham, M.D., 2d edition, p. 23. Boston, U. S., 1833. Several of the above cases 



264 



APPENDIX. NO. III. 



to adduce evidence of them here ; but they are of great importance in dis- 
cussing natural religion, and the inferences from them are adverted to in 
the body of this work. 

I may remark, that consciousness localises the mind in the head, and gives 
us a full conviction that it acts there, although it does not reveal what 
substance occupies the interior of the skull, or the influence of that sub- 
stance on our powers of thinking and feeling. It is worthy of observation 
also, that the popular notions of the independence of the mind on the body 
are modern, and the offspring of philosophical theories that have sprung up 
chiefly since the days of Locke. In Shakspeare and the older writers, the 
word " brains" is frequently used as implying the mental functions. 

The cases which are supposed to contradict these phenomena are easily 
reconciled with them. It is often said of persons dying at an advanced age 
that their mental faculties remained entire to the last. The real meaning of 
this phrase is , that the patients were not deranged ; that is to say, that in 
so far as they were capable of manifesting the mind, their faculties acted 
normally : but it is a complete mistake to suppose that their minds were 
then as capable of profound investigation, of vivid emotion, and of energetic 
action, as in the maturity of life. Sometimes cerebral excitement from 
disease renders the mind particularly brilliant, however weak the body at 
large may be. The fact of the mental powers being the last to fade, is ex- 
plained by the circumstance, that the brain and nervous system suffer the 
least diminution of size in the general decay of the corporeal frame.* 

As this treatise may be read by non-scientific readers, some of whom are 
influenced by authorities, I may mention that the Rev. Dr JohnTaylor of 
Norwich, in a letter to Bishop Law, quoted approvingly by the latter in his 
Considerations on the Theory of Religion, &c, 5th ed., p. 423, maintains 
that " the operations of the mind depend, constantly and invariably, upon the 
state of the body, of the brain in particular. If some dying persons have a 
lively use of their rational faculties to the very last, it is because death has 
invaded some other part, and the brain remains sound and vigorous." Dr 
Taylor was an able and learned Theologian, and a Nonconformist, who 
flourished in the reign of Geo. II. 

No. III. — Heaven ajsj> Hell. (Referred to on p. 235.) 

The following descriptions of Heaven and Hell are extracted from " A 
First Catechism for Children, to assist Parents and Teachers. By Joseph 
Hay, A.M., Minister, Arbroath. New Edition. Edinburgh: William 
Oliphant and Sons ; David Robertson, Glasgow ; William Curry and Co., 
Dublin ; and Hamilton, Adams, and Co., London. Price One Penny." It 
is extensively taught to the young in schools in Scotland. 

HEAVEN. 

Where will the righteous go after they are judged ? Into life eternal. 
Why is this life called eternal ? Because it will last for ever. 
Will they never die any more ? No ; " there shall be no more death." 
Will they ever be sick in heaven ? No ; there shall be " neither sor- 
row, nor crying, nor any more pain.'* Rev. xxi. 4. 

have already been collected by this intelligent writer, whose little volume has been re- 
printed here* by Dr Macnish. See also " System of Phrenology," by George Combe, from 
p. 10 to p. 20, 

* The brain and spinal cord lose only 0-019 of their original substance in a warm- 
blooded animal starved to death. Of the fat, 0-933 parts are lost ; of the blood, 0-750 ; 
of the muscles, 0-423 ; of the organs of respiration, 0*222 ; and of the bones, 0*167 



APPENDIX. NO. III. 



265 



Why will there be no more sickness nor death there ? Because they 
will have no more sin. Isaiah xxxiii. 24. 

Will they ever grow old in heaven ? No ; they will be like the angels 
of God. Luke xx. 36 ; Mark xvi. 5. 

What company will they have in heaven ? The company of God, of 
holy angels, and of all good men. Heb. xii. 22-24. 

What will they be employed in ? They will serve God day and night 
in his temple. Rev. vii. 15. 

Will they ever be wearied in his service-? No ; it will be rest to them. 
Heb. iv. 9. 

Will they be very happy in heaven ? Yes ; they will always sing the 
new song. Rev. v. 9-10. 

What honour will they have there ? They will be kings and priests 
unto God. 

What glory will they have? The glory of Christ. Rev. iii. 21. 

What will give light to them in heaven ? The glory of God and the 
Lamb. Rev. xxi. 23. 

Will there be any night in heaven? No; "there will be no night 
there." Rev. xxii. 5. 

HELL. 

Where will the bad people go after they are judged? Into everlasting 
punishment. 

W'ith whom will they be punished in hell ? With the devil and his 
angels. 

What will they be tormented with ? With fire and brimstone. Rev. 
xxi. 8. 

Will they have any rest from their torments ? No ; they will have no 
rest day nor night. Rev. xvi. 10. 

Will the pain of their torments be very great ? Yes ; they will gnaw 
their tongues with pain. Rev, xvi. 10. 

Will they cry out under their pain? Yes; with weeping and wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. Matt. xiii. 50. 

Will they get any relief from these torments ? No ; not a drop of water 
to cool their tongue. Luke xvi. 24-26. 

Will their torments ever come to an end ? No ; their worm dieth not, 
and their fire shall never be quenched. Mark ix. 44. 

Will their torments make them any better ? No ; they will blaspheme 
God because of their pains, and their sores, and not repent of their deeds. 
Rev. xvi. 11. 

Will they have any light in hell ? No ; it will be the blackness of 
darkness for ever. Jude 13, 

A girl of seven years of age, to whom this Catechism is taught, recently 
put this question to her mother : tl Mother," said she, " the Catechism says 
in one place that the bad people will have no light in hell, and in another 
place that they will be tormented with fire and brimstone. How can there 
be fire and no light ? I always see light where there is fire." Her mother 
could not account for this anomaly, and gave an evasive answer. This indi- 
cated active reflective faculties in the child, and this Catechism supplied the 
materials, presented by the mother, and by many other evangelical Christians 
to their children, on which to exercise them ! The same persons denounce 

Chossat, Recherches Experimentale3 sur l'lnanition, p. 92. Paris, 1843. See also " The 
Physiology of Digestion,"' by Andrew Combe, M.D., p. 86, edition 1849. 



266 



APPENDIX. NO. III. 



as infidel the proposal to instruct the young in the objects and order of God's 
providence in nature, which stand in the same relation to their intellects that 
wholesome food bears to their stomachs. 

The following account of sickness and death is given in the same Cate- 
chism : — ■ 

SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 

Wherefore do sickness and disease come upon both old and young ? 
Because all have sinned. Rom. v. 12. 

What is sickness to all who are not God's people ? It is punishment for 
their sin, and a warning to them to flee from it. 

What is it to God's people ? It is correction, to turn them from their 
sins. Rev. iii. 19. 

What will afflictions do to God's people ? They will make them love 
and serve God more. Ps. cxix. 67. 

What will they do to bad people ? Sometimes they will turn them to 
God. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13. 

If they do not turn them to God, what will they do to them? Make them 
more hardened against him. Isa. i. 5. 

What should we do when we are sick ? We should seek God, and cry 
to him for help. 

What help will he give us ? He will heal us of our sickness, or prepare 
us for death. 

TEMPORAL DEATH. 

How did death come into the world ? By sin. 
Wherefore do all men die ? Because they have all sinned. 
Why do even the youngest infants die ? Because they sinned in Adam. 
Rom. v. 14. 

What is death to bad people ? The beginning of eternal death. 
What is meant by the sting of death ? Its power of destroying men. 
Rev. ii. 11. 

What is its sting ? It is sin in us, unpardoned. 
To whom does death have its sting ? To them who die in their sin. 
What is death to good people ? The beginning of eternal life. John 
xi. 25, 26. 

Why is there such a change on it to them ? Because Christ suffered it 
for them, and took away its sting. 1 Cor. xv. 57. 

What is the death of good people like ? It is like a sleep. Acts vii. 60. 

Why is it called their last enemy ? Because, after it, they have no 
more sin nor suffering. 

How many of God's people have gone to heaven without dying ? Two ; 
Enoch and Elijah. 

Will all who shall ever be in the world die? No; those who are on 
the earth when Christ comes, shall not die ; but be changed. 1 Cor. xv. 
51, 52. 

This is called religious instruction ; and for it the whole lessons for the 
guidance of human conduct, deducible from the Divine government of the 
world in nature, are thrust aside and excluded from schools ! 

No. IV. — Man-concocted Articles of Faith. (See p. 233.) 

The remark in the text, that the original records of the Christian religion 
are sealed books to the laity, and that their Christianity is really nothing more 



APPENDIX. — NO. IV. 



267 



than certain interpretations of them concocted "by fallible and somewhat bar- 
barous men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, received a curious 
illustration at a meeting of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, held in 
Edinburgh on 3d May 1853. The following report appeared in the Scots- 
man newspaper of 4th May : — " In the evening the Synod took up an ap- 
peal by Mr Goodsir, from the decision of the Edinburgh Presbytery, con- 
firming a finding of the kirk-session of the High Church — of which church he 
is a member — with reference to an application by him for an explanation 
how the doctrine of Justification, as explained in the eleventh chapter of the 
Confession of Faith, was proved to be deducible from, and reconcilable with, 
the Greek New Testament. The kirk-session, having considered the peti- 
tion, found that while to them belonged the duty of inquiring into the spiri- 
tual state of the members of the congregation, and of admonishing or encou- 
raging them as they might see cause, they were bound to conduct their in- 
quiries in accordance with the recognised standards of the Church, and they 
declined to go beyond their constitutional purposes — the more so as a know- 
ledge of the Greek language, and of the principles of philological criticism, 
were qualifications which all the lay members of a kirk-session could not be 
expected to possess. The case was then carried to the Presbytery, who con- 
firmed the finding of the kirk-session, and this decision was appealed against. 
Mr Goodsir was now heard in support of his appeal ; he stated that, as a lay 
member of the Church, he had applied to the kirk-session, as being the only 
body to which he could legitimately apply, for the removal of his difficulties, 
and because, according to the law of the Church, it was the duty of that court 
to inquire into the spiritual knowledge of the members of the congregation 
under its charge. He had proceeded with his remarks for some time, when 
Mr Tait of Kirkliston moved, and Mr Muir of Dalmeny seconded, a pro- 
posal, that the Synod could not competently hear him, because they could not 
allow any arguments which would impugn the doctrines laid down in the 
Confession of Faith. Mr Goodsir declared that he did not intend to impugn 
these doctrines ; all he desired was to make out that he had certain rights 
which no Church Court could ignore. After some discussion, Mr Kerr of 
Yester and Mr Scott of Dirleton proposed that Mr Goodsir should be allowed 
to proceed, and, on a division, this amendment was carried by 7 against 5. 
Mr Goodsir accordingly went on to state that a Church Court alone could in 
his opinion satisfactorily give a deliverance on the point as to which he had 
applied for information, and that this was his reason for not acceding to an 
interview with the ministers of the High Church. He argued that it was 
the duty of the Church Courts to explain and defend her standards, while the 
finding of the kirk-session, referring to ' the recognised standards of the 
Church as compared with the authorised English version of the Scriptures,' 
made it appear as if there was a law debarring any reference to the real in- 
spired Word of God — the Greek New Testament. If this were the case, it 
was exalting a version of the Scriptures to a position of power and autho- 
rity which no mere version ever held in the Christian Church. Again, if 
there was such a law — and he maintained there was not — he asked how far 
it went, and how many courts it bound ? and whether he was to understand 
that even the General Assembly could not explain from the Scripture, as di- 
rectly inspired, how a certain chapter in the Confession of Faith was deducible 
from, or reconcilable with the Word of God? Dr Simpson of Kirknewton 
was then heard on behalf of the Presbytery. He urged that not only was 
it no part of the duty of a kirk- session to give the explanation asked for by 
Mr Goodsir, but that they were utterly unqualified to do so, involving as it 
did a minute acquaintance with the Greek language. Nine-tenths of Mr 
Goodsir's arguments appeared to him to be directed against Church standards 
altogether ; while the fact was that the Confession of Faith — their standard 



268 



APPENDIX. — NO. V. 



— must not be impugned, and the Church could allow no discussion which 
seemed to call it in question. Dr Simpson also maintained that Mr Good- 
sir ought to have accepted the offer of the ministers of the High Church, 
who had declared their willingness to give him their best assistance in re- 
moving the difficulties which he felt ; the more so because it was not a ques- 
tion of authority, and the mere decision of any Church Court could not settle 
the matter for the appellant. Mr Goodsir having said a few words in reply, Mr 
Scott of Dirleton moved that the deliverance of the Presbytery should be 
confirmed by the Synod, on the ground that Mr Goodsir had asked the kirk- 
session to do what the greater part of them were totally incapable of doing, 
and what it was legally incompetent for them to do. He had asked them, iD 
fact, to reconstruct for him a new Confession of Faith, while, if he found 
anything in that Confession which he considered inconsistent with the Word 
of God, his only alternative was to cease to be a member of the Church. Dr 
Cook of Haddington, in supporting this motion, recommended Mr Goodsir to 
study carefully and thoughtfully the works of authors who had written on the 
subject as to which he felt a difficulty. The motion was unanimously agreed 
to, Mr Goodsir appealing to the General Assembly. — The Synod soon after 
adjourned." 

If a few laymen would take courage and ask the Church Courts to justify 
their standards by an appeal to Scripture, their errors and imperfections 
would speedily become palpable to ordinary minds. If man be by nature 
a progressive being, no greater injury can be done to him than to tie up his 
faculties by an interpretation, virtually held to be infallible, of the Divine 
will. The views stated in this work appear to me to accord better with the 
advancement of such a being. 

No. V. — Definition of the " Personality" of the Deity. 

A writer in Macphail's Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal, said to be the 
organ of the Church of Scotland, in a notice of " The Constitution of Man," 
says : — " The error of Mr Combe goes on the assumption that either the 
Deity is not a person, or that, if he is a person, he does not act as a per- 
son, which virtually, so far as we are concerned with his government, 
amounts to the same thing. We do our author no injustice, therefore, if 
we at once impute to him the virtual denial of the personality of the Deity. 
To deny the personality of the Deity is equivalent to the denial of Deity 
altogether; and thus we have Mr Combe, though perhaps he did not foresee 
such consequences to follow from his assumptions, avowing a doctrine which, 
to all intents and purposes, is absolute Atheism." (No. 85, for Feb. 1853, 
p. 27.) The writer proceeds to remark, that " It can scarcely be said that 
a distinct or definite opinion exists as to what personality really is." " It 
is quite evident," he adds, " that Paley had not a definite notion of it in 
his own mind when he attempted to define it." The definition of Locke, 
quoted ante, p. 54, sect. 172, it is said, " has been deservedly rejected, as 
involving the most absurd and ridiculous consequences." To supply all 
these and other defects, the writer gives what he considers a perfect defini- 
tion. " Personality," says he, " consists in the Causality of Volition. 
This is what constitutes the man. The man is another name for the will. 
The man or the will is the person. Wherever there is volition there is a 
person. There is volition throughout nature, inasmuch as there is power 
in constant exercise, a power beyond and above the power of man. This 
exercise of power is the volition of a person, and that person is God. This 
volition is his Law. And it is here that we conceive Mr Combe has gone 
wrong ; and he has done so, because all other philosophers who have pre- 
ceded him have gone wrong on the same point." (P. 29.) 



APPENDIX. — NO. VI. 



269 



It is some mitigation of this censure to find that the critic includes all 
other philosophers in my error, and we must acknowledge our obligations 
to him for at last setting us all right. His definition appears to me to coin- 
cide closely with the views which I have stated on " The Existence of God," 
in chap. V, ; with this exception, that I have endeavoured to shew that our 
faculties do not enable us, as finite beings, to comprehend the nature of 
God, who is infinite, and whom we cannot define, for the simple reason that 
we cannot define what we cannot understand. 

It would not be difficult to state objections to this writer's own definition. 
An acephalous infant, for example, has no " causality of volition," and, 
therefore, according to him, is not a person : Nevertheless, if he were deli- 
berately to kill such a child, the law would hold it to have been a person, 
and would visit him with the punishment of death for murdering it. A man 
dead drunk has "no causality of volition," and is, therefore, by parity of 
reason, not a person. But, again, if the critic, suiting his actions to his 
words, were to rob or kill such a man, the law would recognise him to have 
been a person, and would sentence the critic to be punished as a robber 
or a murderer. 

Nay, the definition presents an aspect of still stranger incongruity when 
applied to the cases mentioned in Appendix, No. II., p. 263. The man Jones, 
for example, was a " person" before he was wounded in the head. For a 
period of thirteen months after that event he had no consciousness, and no 
" causality of volition." During that time, therefore, he was not a " per- 
son." At length, Mr Cline, the surgeon, raised a portion of the bone of the 
skull which had been depressed, and within three hours after the operation, 
Jones sat up in bed, and sensation and volition returned ; he then became a 
" person !" 

It appears tome that the word "person," in its common acceptation, 
means a living human body, and that the early Jews really understood God 
to have a body, after the image of which the human body was formed ; 
hence arose the notion of the personality of the Deity. Men like Locke 
and Paley of course did not embrace this idea, and tried to give a defini- 
tion of a person irrespective of a bodily form, but with very little success. 
The truth seems to me to be that we cannot define what we cannot com- 
prehend. 

This writer is respectful in his tone towards me and my errors, for which 
I thank him ; but considering the class of persons who constitute the ma- 
jority of the readers of religious magazines, and the inherent difficulties of 
such a subject as this, would it not have been more graceful, not to say 
more just and modest, if he had abstained from charging me, even by im- 
plication, with " absolute atheism ;" knowing, as he well does, the effect of 
such a charge on vulgar minds ? 

No. VI. — On the Worship of the Shakers. (Referred to on ' 
pp. 204 and 213.) 

As some readers may have a difficulty in believing that the dancing evo- 
lutions and singing of the Shakers, described on page 204, were really un- 
derstood by themselves to constitute Divine worship, I present the following 
extracts from an account of their tenets, published by Seth Wells and 
Calvin Green, of New Lebanon, in the State of New York. It appears in 
" The Cyclopaedia of Religious Denominations : — " 

" Concerning their mode of worship. This subject is generally greatly 
misunderstood. The people of this Society do not believe that any external 
performance whatever, without the sincere devotion of the heart, with all the 



270 



APPENDIX. — NO. VII. 



feelings of the soul, in devotion and praise to the Creator of all their powers 
and faculties, can be any acceptable worship to Him who looks at the heart. 
But in a united assembly, a unity of exercise in acts of devotion to God is 
desirable ; for harmony is beautiful, and appears like the order of heaven. 
It will be difficult to describe all the various modes of exercise given in the 
worship of God at different times ; because the operations of the Spirit are 
so various, that even the leaders are unable to tell beforehand what manner 
will be given by the Spirit in the next meeting. Yet, in a regular meeting, 
where nothing extraordinary appears, they sometimes exercise in a regular 
dance, while formed in straight lines, and sometimes in a regular march 
around the room, in harmony with regular songs sung on the occasion. 
Shouting and clapping of hands, and many other operations are frequently 
given, all which have a tendency to keep the assembly alive, with their 
hearts and all their senses and feelings devoted to the service of God. 

''Our benevolent Creator has given us hands and feet as well as tongues, 
which we are able to exercise in our own services. And where a people 
are united in one spirit, we know of no reason why a unity of exercise in the 
service of God should not be attained, so as to give the devotion of every 
active power of soul and body as a free-will offering to the God of all good- 
ness, who has given us these faculties. When the Israelites were delivered 
from their Egyptian bondage, they praised God with songs and dances. 
(See Exod. chap, xv.) This was figurative of the deliverance of spiritual 
Israel from the bondage of sin. This dancing before the Lord was pre- 
predicted by the ancient prophets. (See Jer. chap, xxxi.) See also the 
account of David's dancing before the ark of the Lord. (See 2 Sam. vi. 
14.) This is considered figurative of the spiritual ark of salvation, before 
which, according to the faith of God's true witnesses, thousands and millions 
will yet rejoice in the dance. See also the return of the prodigal son. 
(Luke xv. 25.) We notice these figurative representations and prophetic 
declarations as evidently pointing to a day of greater and more glorious 
light, which in those days was veiled in futurity, and if this is not the com- 
mencement of such a clay, then where shall we look for it ?" 

This forms a striking example of the doctrine maintained in the text, that 
almost any ceremony may be rendered sacred and religious, by being en- 
twined from infancy with the religious emotions. 



No. VII. — Letters from the late Dr Samuel Brown to George 
Combe, on the Natural Evidence for the Existence and Attri- 
butes of God, and other topics. 

Dr Samuel Brown was descended from a family long distinguished in 
Scotland for piety and theological erudition. He inherited their spirit, 
but with the advantages of a scientific education, and an acute and discur- 
sive intellect, his theological studies took the range of the modern literature 
of Europe ; and without being shaken in the basis of his faith, he rose 
above the narrow and sectarian views which are generally regarded as cha- 
racteristic of Scotland in the present day. While the views published in 
the present work were dawning in my own mind, I communicated some of 
the most important of them to him in letters, and solicited his opinion ; 
and he wrote to me several letters in reply, which I preserved as valu- 
able on account of the close and vigorous thinking, the learning, and the 
genuine spirit of free inquiry which they displayed. On his death-bed, he 
mentioned these letters to his wife, and expressed a wish that she would 
apply to me for them on behalf of a friend to whom he was then unable 



APPENDIX. NO. VII. 



271 



to write fully on the subject. He died on the 20th of September 1856, 
and they were accordingly sent to her ; and with her permission they are 
now published. An extract from one of them is given on page 78. 

For several years before his death Dr Brown suffered severely from bad 
health, to which reference is made in this correspondence. 

Letter No. I. — To George Combe, Esq. 

St James' Square, Notting Hill, London, Feb. 7, 1853. 
I have been long of answering your last kind and touching letter ; but 
solely because I wished to do so at some little length, and my ailing state has 
forbidden that. 

I heartily respond to all you say in magnification of that standing and 
perpetual miracle, the Order of Nature, to the disparagement of so-called 
special miracles, supposed to be produced by the divine or sub-divine break- 
ing in upon that order. I, too, wish no such miracle to be performed on my 
behalf. I would be cured according to law or not at all. I love to be be- 
loved of God, I seem to myself most surely to be so beloved ; but God forbid 
I should ask anything like favouritism at his hands. I am content with, 
nay, like you, I exult in the blessed way of Nature ; and I look for recovery 
from this weary malady only to my own obedience. It has been brought 
on me by disobedience, that of a line of ancestry stretching to Adam on 
one hand, and that of my proper sinful and ignorant self on the other ; and 
if it be now incurable I shall succumb without weak complaint or insolent 
upbraiding. If it be curable by anything I can learn and do, I may be 
cured in good time ; and in that case I shall bless our God for no special and 
private act, but for the great and public beneficence of his wide creation. 

At the same time, let me add, that I think those Christian Theologians who 
have defined a miracle (in reference to the classical miracles narrated in the { 
Bible) as a suspension of the common order of nature have done an injury (/ 
to those very wonders. A miracle is simply a wonderful thing ; and the 
cures wrought by Jesus and his Apostles were wonderful things enough, 
without being made poor and private by the invocation of a Deus ex 
machind. I conceive that the miracles in question (the authentic ones) 
were made in concert with the nature of things. Our modern cures by 
homoeopathic quantities, by friction, by what they call Mesmerism, by the 
action of faith, are modern miracles in their degree ; yet, in so far as they 
are real, they are truly according to nature. 

I know both Dr M'Cosh and his big book. I confess I think the defect 
of his book is the want of originality. There is a heavy, Dutch, compilatory 
spirit all over it ; it is nearly one-third part quotation : it iterates and re- 
iterates old arguments too much. Amazingly well read, and very intelligent, 
he yet seems to me to be void of the genius of inquiry. Hardly any ism 
in the world would improve him in these respects, I fancy. 

As for his Calvinism, I have not so strong objections to it as you have, 
you know. I certainly think Calvinism an infelicitous putting of the theory 
of life lower and higher ; but, when it is stated philosophically (as by 
Jonathan Edwards, for example), it seems to me vastly ingenious, pro- 
found, and sublime — a doctrine, in short, easily made ridiculous by its 
friends, and easily reduced to absurdity by its enemies perhaps, but not 
easily surpassed in gloomy grandeur and power over the true believer in its 
deep and dark propositions. I enter into the feeling of Emerson when he 
assured a friend of yours and mine, who visited him at Concord with a letter 
from me, that " he regretted to see the old Calvinism dying out of New 
England, for he saw nothing half so good coming up to take its place." 
Yet, ever since I have been convinced of the vitality of Christianity, \ 



272 



APPENDIX. — NO. VII. 



have refused the Calvinistic interpretation of it. I rather side with 
the view of Henry More, Jeremy Taylor, Robert Scougal, — having 
also a decided taste for the sweet poetic formalism of dear George 
Herbert. But " Fichte's Blessed Life" comes nearer my own doctrine, I 
think. Yet none of the views that I know anything of, from Augustine 
down to Strauss, pleases me wholly ! Hence I am a member of no visible 
church, but simply a cool adherent of them all> with a vivid affection for 
the true blue of my fathers, side by side with an intellectual and aosthetical 
preference on the whole for that of England. In the meantime, the Bible, 
and especially the writings of John in the New Testament, constitute my 
divine classic, my opus sine pari, my unexhausted treasury of good things — 
in plain English, it seems to me to tell me infinitely more of what I want to 
know regarding the interior nature of myself and my relations to my God 
than all other books put together. The Hebrew spirit consummated in 
Christ and John, appears to have exhausted that species of inspiration or 
insight, just as the Greeks seem to have begun and ended sculpture, or, as 
we say, Shakspeare has finished the drama. Single men, and nations of 
men, do tasks once for all, you see. With all my getting, therefore, I de- 
sire to get understanding from my Bible. Such is a glance at my Confes- 
sion of Faith. ****** * 

Samuel Brown. 

No. II. — To George Combe, Esq. 

Edinburgh, 3d May 1847. 

Allow me to thank you, not only for sending your searching pamphlet 
[On the Relation between Science and Religion], but also for the pamphlet 
itself. It does me much good ; and gives me great pleasure to see the obli- 
gatoriness of the Law of Nature inculcated on the ground that it is the re- 
vealed will of God, or rather the will of God in the course of being slowly 
revealed by the labours of research. No other consideration will do. It makes 
obedience holy and beautiful, as well as necessary, to the idea of the good man. 
It makes nature a sublime missal,— a book of common -prayer, — an unfolding 
confession of faith,' — and a true New Testament. If your ideas were uni- 
versally believed and lived, there would then be the circumstances for a still 
higher life than you indicate in the present address. 

I have to thank you also for deprecating the conception that the penalties 
of disobedience are mere punishments. They are corrections. The puri- 
tanic mind would call them, with both truth and beauty, " the chastening 
hand of the Lord," — at least, when inflicted on the elect ; alas that any one 
should have ever dared to call them the vengeance of God, when they fall 
upon us who are not chosen ! 

When you remember that I have John Brown of Haddington in my veins, 
you will understand the high satisfaction I experience in sacred views of the 
phenomena of Nature, and practical ones. 

That you may reap the fruits of your philanthropic endeavours, both in this 
life and in the next — if there be another — is the sincere wish of your affec- 
tionate servant, Samuel Brown. 

No, III. — To George Combe, Esq. 

Edinburgh, 13th June 1847. 
Permit me to describe my views of the argument of design, in a few short 
propositions, which I submit to your judgment with both diffidence and con- 
sideration. 

1. The argument of design is a posteriori. It is an argument of analogy. 
It ascends from the known to the unknown. The subjects of the analogy are, 
the works of man, a watch, a code of laws, or any other human contrivance, 



APPENDIX. — NO. VII. 



273 



on one hand, and the phenomena of Nature on the other. The former, the 
watch, &c, are known to have been designed by the human designer — man ; 
the latter, the phenomena of Nature, are inferred analogically to have been de- 
signed by the unknown, but sought, designer — God. Well, it appears to 
me that an analogy, to be good for demonstration, must be extensible, at least 
in its essence, equally to both of the terms of that analogy. Now, man, the 
known designer, invents or designs, by discovering laws external to and inde- 
pendent of himself, and then applying these laws to the sure production of 
effects which he desiderates — Black discovers latent heat, Watt applies that 
discovery in a desiderated direction ; and the steam-engine is brought to per- 
fection. Therefore, the unknown designer, who is inferred by this analogy, 
does, for all the analogy makes good, simply discover truth external to and in- 
dependent of himself, and then apply that truth to the production of effects 
(the phenomena of nature), which he desiderates. This is not God, the eternal, 
almighty, and everyway infinite one, whose existence the argument pro- 
fesses to demonstrate. 

2. Suppose for a moment, however, that the argument of design did estab- 
lish the existence of a creative designer, and not only a mere vastly great 
modifying one, yet since the number and kind of instances of design in na- 
ture known to man are by no means infinite, so neither is the inferred crea- 
tive designer infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, for all the argument 
goes to prove. Neither is this indefinitely great creator the God whomwe seek. 

The force of both these strictures your statement of the argument allows 
and implies ; and it is consequently, to my mind, the justest, or rather the 
only just statement of it I have seen, although I am considerably versant in 
the literature of the subject. But I confess I am not content with the demi- 
urgic God, or demigod, or principality, to use a word of St Paul's, on the 
mighty and beneficent arm of whom you are willing to repose. If, how- 
ever, nothing more could be said concerning God, I should consider myself 
bound, as a man of humility and candour, not to fly into an unmitigated 
atheism, but to satisfy myself with the probabilities and limitation of your 
just and candid putting of the argument of design. But, 

3. It is not things I see, but sensations of what I believe to be things. I 
cannot prove that they are things, I cannot disprove them to be things, yet 
I believe them to be things. It is a fundamental or ultimate law of my na- 
ture to believe in external nature. It is the beginning of my knowledge of 
Nature. 

Now, I see design among these sensations (or things, as we may now call 
them), which I believe to be the design of God. I cannot prove it to be the 
design of God, I cannot disprove it to be so, yet I believe it to be so. It is 
a fundamental law of my nature to believe in God the designer, precisely as 
it is to believe in Nature the sensible. It is the beginning of my knowledge of 
God. All men believe in Nature, all believe in God ; although a few idealists 
on the one hand, and a few atheists on the other, have professed to reject both 
of these fundamental beliefs. I suppose — only suppose — that in a typal, very 
complete man, the belief in God would be prior to that in Nature. This 
being emphatically the era of the victory of man over Nature, we Britons of 
the nineteenth century are certainly nearer to Nature than to God, to use a 
figure of speech. 

4. God being recognised according to this fundamental belief (the com- 
mon sense of Reid, the faith of St Paul, who says, " By faith we know that 
the worlds w 7 ere made by God "), then the argument of design becomes an il- 
luminated commentary upon the attributes of the Deity. 

5. It seems to me, and it seems so truly that nothing could trouble the 
seeming, that to expect God to be demonstrable is to expect God to be finite ; 
for that only can be demonstrated which is susceptible of definition — I mean 

S 



274 



APPENDIX. NO. VII. 



a positive definition, and not one by such words as almighty, omniscient, 
infinite, tmchangeable, and so on. 

If you will favour me with your opinion of this way of putting the relation 
of God to Nature and man, you will much oblige yours, &c, 

Samuel Brown. 



No. IV. — To George Combe, Esq. 

Edinburgh, 17th June 1847. 
Let me add three things to my last note, in answer to your kind and 
just criticism of my naked and unelaborated formula. I do so without fear- 
ing to weary you ; because I know that a man of science cannot fail to take 
some interest in seeing how anything in the universe appears to another 
mind, especially one which has been pastured in other fields of investiga- 
tion than he himself has traversed. There is, accordingly, no need of diffi- 
dence in ingenuously showing you the very foundations of my beliefs con- 
cerning Nature and God. 

I. God being by me, as has been said already, apprehended, (since, ac- 
cording to the understood negative definition, that being cannot be com- 
prehended,) in accordance with what Dugald Stewart calls a fundamental 
law of my nature, it seems to me that infinitude of attribute is involved 
in the very idea of God so apprehended. It is so, at all events, in and for 
myself personally, I know. It is possible that this is so in my case, simply 
because I may be deficient in the faculty of analysis, and because I am 
thereby unable to analyse my consciousness to any greater depth. Yet I 
know a multitude of sincere thinkers who homologate this intuition of mine, 
each in his own case ; not to mention any particular great names, — since 
names go for nothing. At the same time, I must confess that this is not 
the universal, or even very general, testimony of humanity ; for the vast 
majority of men, down to the present day and hour, worship (or think they 
worship) a very, very finite and ignoble Godhead. Hence, in fairness to 
your way of putting the question, we must suppose that infinitude of attri- 
bute is not involved in the aboriginal intuition by which you and I agree 
that mankind do recognise the existence of a Creator. In order that there 
may be no possibility of mistake regarding the phrase aboriginal intui- 
tions, allow me to repeat, that I mean to designate by it the belief, accord- 
ing to the fundamental laws of our nature, of Stewart, the sensus communis 
humanitatis of his teacher Reid, the primary beliefs of Kant, the primitive 
emotions of Jacobi the sentimental theologist, the faith of St Paul. Well, 

II. The idea of God, whatever it involve, being developed simultaneously 
with the conception of Nature, these two ideas do at once fall into true op- 
position to one another ; not mere difference, — not contradiction, — but oppo- 
sition, like that of the positive and negative poles of a magnet, — like that of 
motion and rest, beauty and deformity, finitude and infinitude, and so on. 
They are for the mind polar opposites, — the creator, the created. They 
therefore define one another. A positive definition of the one shall be a 
negative definition of the other, or, more strictly, shall be convertible into 
such. Now Nature is susceptible of positive investigation, and may be 
positively defined as finite, multiform, changing, &c. ; does it not follow that 
God, the genuine polar opposite of nature, is infinite One, and Invariable ? 
But, 

III. Even dismissing this second putting of the question, there is another, 
I think. The truths of mathematics are absolute truths. They are not 
contingent, like the propositions of unmixed physics, which are contingent 
on accuracy and completeness of observation, on justness of generalization, 



APPENDIX. NO. VII. 



275 



and on the intuitive belief that the order of Nature is according to law. No 
god can gainsay, them. They are legislative, not interpretative. In that 
sphere man is no longer only minister et interpres, he is sovereign and law- 
giver. Is it not an axiom, that the faculty in man (pure reason) which de- 
crees, not simply discovers, absolute truth is itself necessarily absolute? 
Absolute is another word for infinite, and both are other words for Divine. 

Now the discoveries of astronomy, and all the applicate sciences, display 
God in the character of a geometer of indefinitely vast resources, i.e. as ab- 
solute and infinite in faculty, i.e. Divine in the sense of infinitude of at- 
tribute. 

It seems to follow from this, that man too is Divine ; but this is only appa- 
rent. Man, a man, is not his body, with its wondrous complication of 
cerebral and other organs ; but neither is he his soul ; neither of them is He ; 
He is the tertium quid, the resultant, as a geometer would say, of the two. 
But it does follow that his soul is Divine, and I believe it to the very letter. 
The immaterial element of each of us is " very God of very God," to my 
sincere thinking, — not my judgment, my memory, my emotions, my any- 
thing, is Divine ; but absolute Reason in me is Divine. In this sense I am 
the son of God. If all that is creatural, and finite, and personal in me were 
subordinate to the ideas of pure Reason, I should be the son of God, as Christ 
is so, for the heart and imagination of Christendom ; I should be God-man ; 
I should be the Emmanuel of old prophetic intuition ; I should be the Ideal- 
real of human nature ; as it is, I am only the feeble child of circumstances, 
and yours most truly, 

Samuel Brown. 

P. S. — If I were writing as a phrenologist (and I am one), I should name 
what I have called the aboriginal intuition of God, the instinct of Causality 
under the impulsion of Wonder, Ideality, and Veneration. 

P. S. No. 2. — 18th Jane.-r-The glimpse into the system I embrace, con- 
tained in Observation 3, will show that it is a sort of synthesis of Spinosaism 
and phrenology, of Christianity and paganism, of idealism and realism ;*at 
least it unites and reconciles these opposing elements of human theory. Be 
so kind to me as not condemn it for incoherent on account of any incongrui- 
ties at first sight. I do not know if it be truth ; God only knows that ; but 
I do know it is not mystical in the sinister sense of the word, and that it is at 
least coherent in all its parts. In addition to it, at present, let me add that I 
consider the sum and procession of perceptions, conceptions, ideas, emotions, 
desires, remembrances, and anticipations which do result phenomenally from 
the action and reaction upon one another of my bodily conformation on one 
hand, and the Divine common soul of you and me and all beings on the 
other; I say I consider that procession of human phenomena to be, and to con- 
stitute, my proper self. There is not any need, philosophically speaking, 
of hypostatising that living series, although, practically speaking, the ima- 
gination and the heart demand such an impersonation of it ; and we always 
hypostatise or impersonate phenomena until we are better taught ; witness 
the phenomena of heat hypostatised by Black, in the form of caloric ; those 
of animal and vegetable life, in that of a vital principle, by a set of physio- 
logists ; those of morbid or occult sensibility, in that of Od, by Reichenbach ; 
and so on, ad infinitum almost. For any sake, excuse my long-windedness ; 
and be so good as let me know your judgment on these views of mine, if 
you have time before your departure. 



276 



APPENDIX. — NO. VIII. 



No. VIII. — Note on Dr M'Cosh's " Method or the Divine 
Government." 

The Rev. James M'Cosh, LL.D., in an elaborate work on " The Method of 
the Divine Government, Physical and Moral," has honoured my book " On 
the Constitution of Man " with along note of criticisms, chiefly in condemna- 
tion of it. The following is his concluding paragraph : — " We have so far 
noticed this treatise, because there is an air of extraordinary wisdom about 
it, which has made many regard it as superlatively profound. The author 
has seen and endeavoured to count the nice wheels of the machine, but has 
overlooked their relation to one another, and the moving power by which 
they have been set in motion. His views are about as profound as those of 
a factory-girl, explaining, with looks of mysterious wisdom, to her companion 
who has just entered the work, the movements of some of the straps or 
wheels, telling her how to use them, and pointing out the danger of not at- 
tending to them. The information is all very good and useful, provided 
always that it be not hinted, that in knowing the motion of these few wheels, 
we know all about the machine, its end, and its mode of operation." 

If I am the " factory-girl," it is to be inferred, I presume, that Dr M'Cosh 
is the head engineer under God, and that in his " Method of the Divine Go- 
vernment," he has elucidated far better and more extensively than I have 
done " all about the machine, its end, its mode of operation, the moving 
power by which the wheels have been set in motion," and " their relations 
to one another." The reader will judge of the success of his exposition, when 
I add that he ignores the brain and the nervous system of man as instru- 
ments in the moral government of the world ! 

Again , Dr M'Cosh says, " A very little observation suffices to discover the 
wonderful pains which have been taken with man in creating him at first, 
in endowing him with bodily organs and mental faculties, in opening to him 
sources of knowledge, and placing a multitude of resources at his command. 
What high intelligence ! What far-sighted sagacity ! What fields, rich 
and fertile, placed around him, inviting him to enter that he may dig for 
treasures and gather fruits ! It does seem strange, that in endowing man 
with such lofty powers, God should not have furnished him with faculties to 
communicate directly with his Maker and his Governor." (P. 41.) In my 
opinion, God communicates with man through nature ; and in Chapter V. I 
have pointed out that while our faculties are adapted to the constitution of 
this world, and it to them, and are capable of discovering the existence of 
God, some of His attributes, and His Will, in so far as it relates to our- 
selves, nevertheless, He may so far transcend our faculties as to render us 
incapable of receiving more direct communications. Man can communicate 
with the dog, because they have some faculties in common ; but he cannot 
communicate with the oyster, because its powers of comprehension are too far 
below his faculties to render this possible. 

Dr M'Cosh's view is different. "Now," says he, "combine these two 
classes of facts, the apparent distance of God, and yet his nearness intimated 
in various ways, his seeming unconcern and yet constant watchfulness ; and 
we see only one consistent conclusion which can be evolved, that God re- 
gards man as a criminal, from whom he must withdraiv himself, hut whom 
he must not allow to escape." (P. 45.) If I rightly understand these words, 
they imply that the conclusion at which Dr M'Cosh has arrived from his study 
of " The Method of the Divine Government," is, that this world is a great 
prison, the human race a collection of criminals, and God the Head- Jailor and 
Executioner ! Whatever his meaniug may be, his words grate harshly on 



APPENDIX. NO. TX. 



277 



my sentiment of Veneration when applied to the Supreme Being. Dr M' Cosh 
was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and apparently he holds fast 
by its dogmas, and sees man and nature only in the light in which they are 
represented in the Catechism quoted on p. 186. 

No. IX. — Faith in God and Modern Atheism Compared : By 
James Buchanan, D.D., Divinity Professor in the New Col- 
lege, &c. 

Dr Buchanan, in this liberal and philosophical work, has criticised " The 
Constitution of Man." It is necessary here to advert only to two of his 
objections — ' : That the physical and organic laws" says he, " cannot be 
broken or violated in the same sense in which the 4 moral law' may be trans- 
gressed, is evident from the simple consideration that the violation of a na- 
tural law, were it possible, would be not a sin but a miracle.'" 

Answer — In " The Constitution of Man" (5vo edition, published in 1847), 
p. 20, it is said — " A law of nature is not an entity distinct from nature. 
The atoms or elements of matter act invariably in certain definite manners 
in certain circumstances ; the human mind perceives this regularity, and 
calls the action characterized by it, action according to law. But the term 
'law,' thus used, expresses nothing more thon the mind's perception of the 
regularity." 

It is erroneous therefore, to say that I have taught that man can alter the 
modes of action imposed on the atoms or elements of matter, which is what 
Dr Buchanan charges me with. Such a mode of breaking the " natural laws " 
would certainly imply miraculous power in the transgressors. 

Again, Dr Buchanan says — Mr Combe " speaks as if the physical and 
organic ' laws of nature ' possessed the same authority and imposed the same 
obligation as the ' moral ' laws of conscience and Revelation ; and as if the 
breach or neglect of the former were punishable in the same sense, and for 
the same reason, as the transgression of the latter." 

In the same edition of " The Constitution of Man," p. 24, I published 
the remarks contained in page 97 of the present work, which form an 
answer to this objection ; and in page 208 of this work I have endeavoured 
to shew that the rules of conduct which we are capable of deducing from the 
action of every natural force, and its relationship to ourselves, ought to be 
regarded by us as containing a moral and religious sanction ; and that it is 
Dr Buchanan and his friends who, in regarding these rules as matters of 
merely prudential consideration, are in error, and require to take the beam 
out of their own eyes. They do not practically regard nature as a Divine In- 
stitution, and do not reverence the lessons which it teaches. He also, like 
Dr M-Cosh, ignores the brain and nervous system as instruments employed 
by God in the moral government of the world ! 

No. X. — Speech of Lord John Russell on Teaching Natural 
Theology in Common Schools. (Referred to on p. 246.) 

Lord John Russell, in a speech delivered by him in the House of Com- 
mons on 4th April 1853, in introducing a scheme of National Education, is 
reported by The Times to have said, " The scheme" (of giving secular in- 
struction in schools and omitting sectarian religion) " is developed by many 
of the writers on the subject, especially by Mr Combe, whose name, no 
doubt, will be well remembered by the House. What he holds out is this, 
■ — that very imperfect views are taken with respect to religious subjects ; 
often those ules which the Almighty has laid down for our con- 



278 



APPENDIX. — NO. XI. 



duct in this life, so far from being followed, are wilfully or blindly set at 
nougat ; and that it is the business of the schoolmaster to teach those laws of 
social economy and of physiology by which the people of this kingdom may 
be better instructed in conducting themselves, so as to enable them to avoid 
that course of vice and misery into which too many of them fall. It will, 
however, be obvious to the House that this is a proposal different from 
what was the apparent proposal, as at first put forth, of the advocates of 
the secular system. The proposal, as it stands nakedly in the first decla- 
ration of their views, amounts to this, — give exclusively secular instruction 
in the schools, and leave religion to be taught elsewhere by the ministers of 
religion. The second view of the subject, however, is this,' — there is a na- 
tural theology which should be taught in the schools, but Christianity should 
not be taught there. Now, that appears to me a view certainly more ex- 
tensive, and undoubtedly far more dangerous, than that which the advocates 
of secular education first set out with. My belief is that the people of this 
country acted with a right instinct, when, upon associating together and 
devoting their money for the purpose of education, they declared openiy that 
there should be a religious training in the schools, and that that religious 
training should comprise all the great doctrines of Christianity." 

Lord John Russell commits an error if he means, that while the advocates of 
a purely secular education proposed that Christianity should be taught by the 
clergy, or by teachers authorized by them, in a separate school, I proposed 
to exclude such teaching altogether. In none of my published works does 
any such proposition appear, but the reverse. I have advocated teaching 
Christianity in separate schools, and I do so still ; because the people are Chris- 
tian, and 1 should outrage every principle of religious liberty and common 
sense, should I propose that persons, whose highest hopes and fears are 
bound up in the Christian religion, should in any way be precluded from 
having it taught to their children. 

The real state of the question is this. When purely secular instruction 
in one school, and sectarian religious instruction in another, were proposed, 
the religious public objected, <k In your secular schools you propose ' a god- 
less education.' " "When we answered, " Nature is a Divine institution, 
and in these schools we shall teach God's natural laws established to regulate 
human wellbeing, leaving you to teach sectarian dogmas in a separate 
school," Lord John replied, " This is far more dangerous!" More danger- 
ous than what ? Apparently, from the context, than the purely secular in- 
struction, which, however, many had denounced as " godless." Lord John 
appears to me, by implication, to deny that Nature is a Divine Institution, 
that it reveals rules for the guidance of human conduct, and that these rules 
are entitled to our reverence as Divine ! 

No. XI. — Teaching Physiology in Common Schools. 
(Referred to on p. 257.) 

Extract from the General Laws relating to Public Instruction, passed by 
the Legislature of Massachusetts, in the year 1850. 

Chapter 229, entitled ''An Act requiring Physiology and Hygiene to be 
taught in the Public Schools." 

Sect. 1. Physiology and Hygiene shall hereafter be taught in all the 
Public Schools of this Commonwealth, in all cases in which the School Com- 
mittee shall deem it expedient. 

Sect. 2. All School Teachers shall hereafter be examined in their know- 
ledge of the Elementary Principles of Physiology and Hygiene, and their 
ability to give instruction in the same. 



APPENDIX. — NO. XI. 



279 



Sect. 3. This Act shall take effect on and after the first day of October 
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. (April 24, 1850.) 



Medical Opinion on the Importance of Teaching Physiology and the 
Laws of Health in Common Schools. 

Our opinion having been requested as to the advantage of making the 
Elements of Human Physiology, or a general knowledge of the laws of 
health, a part of the education of youth, we the undersigned have no hesita- 
tion in giving it strongly in the affirmative. We are satisfied that much of 
the sickness from which the working classes at present suffer might be 
avoided ; and we know that the best-directed efforts to benefit them by me- 
dical treatment are often greatly impeded, and sometimes entirely frustrated, 
by their ignorance and their neglect of the conditions upon which health 
necessarily depends. We are therefore of opinion, that it would greatly 
tend to prevent sickness and to promote soundness of body and mind were 
the Elements of Physiology, in its application to the preservation of health, 
made a part of general education ; and we are convinced that such instruc- 
tion may be rendered most interesting to the young, and may be communi- 
cated to them with the utmost facility and propriety in the ordinary schools, 
by properly instructed schoolmasters. 

Thomas Addison, M.D., Senior Physician, and Lecturer on the Practice of Physic, Guy's 
Hospital, &c. 

James Alderson, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow, Curator, and Lumleian Lecturer to the Royal 
College of Physicians. 

J. Moncrieff Arnott, F.R.3., Member of the Council and of the Court of Examiners of the 

Royal College of Surgeons, &c. 
Neil Arnott, M.D., F.R.S., Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, Member of the Senate 

of the University of London. 
Benjamin Guy Babington, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Guy's Hospital, &c. 
T. Graham Balfour, M.D., Surgeon, Royal Military Asylum. 

"William Baly, M.D., Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, S:c. 

Archibald Billing, M.D., F.R.S., Member of the Senate and Examiner in Medicine, 
University of London, &c. 

Golding Bird, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Materia Medica and Assistant Physician to 
Guy's Hospital, &c. 

Francis Boott, M.D., Member of the Council of University College. 

"VV. Bowman, F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at King's College, &c. 

Richard Bright, M.D., F.R.S., Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, Consulting Phy- 
sician to Guy's Hospital, &c. 

Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S., Sergeant Surgeon to the Queen, Surgeon 
to H.R.H. Prince Albert, &c. 

George Budd, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Medicine at King's College, and Physician to 
King's College Hospital. 

Sir William Burnett, M.D., K.C.B. and K.C.H., F.R.S., Director-General of Naval Hos- 
pitals and Fleets. 

George Burrows, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital, &c. 

Wm. B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., Examiner in Physiology, &c, University of London, 

Professor of Forensic Medicine at University College. 
Sir James Clark, Bart., M.A., M.D., F.R.S., Physician in Ordinary to the Queen and 

to H.R.H. Prince Albert, &c 
James Copland, M.D., F.R.S., President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. 
John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. 

John E. Erichsen, F.R.C.S., Professor of Surgery, University College, and Surgeon to 

University College Hospital. 
William Farr, M.D., of Registrar-General's Office. 
Robert Ferguson, M.D., Physician Accoucheur to the Queen, &c. 

William Fergusson, F.R.S., Professor of Surgery at King's College, Surgeon in Ordinary 

to H.R.H. Prince Albert, &c. 
John Forbes, M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., Physician in Ordinary to H.M. Household, Physician 

Extraordinary to H.R.H. Prince Albert, &c. 



280 



APPENDIX. — NO. XI. 



R. D. Grainger, F.R.S., Lecturer on Physiology at St Thomas's Hospital. 

William Augustus Guy, M.B., Physician to King's College Hospital, Professor of Foren- 
sic Medicine at King's College. 

Caesar H. Hawkins, President of Royal College of Surgeons, Surgeon to St George's Hos- 
pital, &c. 

Francis Hawkins, M.D., Registrar of Royal College of Physicians, and Physician to 

Middlesex Hospital. 
Thomas Hodgkin, M.D., Member of the Senate of the University of London. 
Joseph Hodgson, F.R.S., Member of Council of Royal College of Surgeons, Examiner in 

Surgery in University of London. 
Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., Physician in Ordinary to the Queen andH.R.H. 

Prince Albert. 

William Jenner, M.D., Professor of Pathological Anatomy at University College. 

H. Bence Jones, M. A., M.D., F.R.S., Physieian to St George's Hospital. 

Francis Kiernan, F.R.S., Member of Senate and Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology, 

University of London. 
P. M. Latham, M.D., Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. 

William Lawrence, F.R.S., Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen, and Examiner Royal 

College of Surgeons. 
Charles Locock, M.D., First Physician Accoucheur to the Queen, &c. 
Thomas Mayo, F.R.S., Physician to the St Marylebone Infirmary. 

Richard Owen, F.R.S., Hunterian Professor of Physiology to the Royal College of Sur- 
geons, &c. 

James Paget, F.R.S., Assistant Surgeon and Lecturer on Physiology at St Bartholomew's 
Hospital, &c. 

John Ayrton Paris, M.D., F.R.S., President of the Royal College of Physicians. 

E. A. Parkes, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine, University College, Physician to 

University College Hospital, &c. 
Richard Partridge, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, King's College, Surgeon to 

King's College Hospital, &c. 
Richard Quain, F.R.S., Sui'geon to University College Hospital. 

G. Owen Rees, M.D., F.R.S. Assistant Physician and Lecturer on Materia Medica at 

Guy's Hospital. 

Edward Rigby, M.D., Examiner in Midwifery to the University of London. 
P. M. Roget, M.D., F.R S., Member of Senate of University of London, Author of "Bridge- 
water Treatise on Physiology," &c. 
PI. S. Roots, M.D., Consulting Physician to St Thomas's Hospital. 
John Scott, M.D., Examining Physician to East India Company. 

Edward James Seymour, M. A., M.D., F.R.S., formerly Physician to St George's Hospital. 

William Sharpey, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology, University College, Examiner 
in Physiology, University of London. 

Alexander Shaw, Surgeon, and Lecturer on Surgery to Middlesex Hospital. 

Andrew Smith, M.D., Director-General, Army Medical Department. 

T. Southwood Smith, M.D., Physician to London Fever Hospital, and Member of Gene- 
ral Board of Health. 

H. H. Southey, M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., Gresham Professor of Medicine. 
Edward Stanley, F.R.S., Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital. 

R. Bentley Todd, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology at King's College, Physician to 
King's College Hospital. 

Benjamin Travers, F.R.S., Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen, and Surgeon in Ordi- 
nary to H.R.H. Prince Albert. 

Alex. Tweedie, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to London Fever Hospital, Examiner in Medi- 
cine to University of London, &c. 

W. H. Walshe, M.D., Professor of Medicine at University College, and Physician to Uni- 
versity College Hospital. 

Thomas Watson, M.D., Consulting Physician to King's College Hospital. 

Charles West, M.D., Physician Accoucheur, and Lecturer on Midwifery at St Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital. 

C. J. B. Williams, M.D., F.R.S.,late Professor of Medicine at University College^and 

Physician at University College Hospital. 
James Arthur Wilson, M.D., Senior Physician to St George's Hospital. 

London, March 1853. 



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